Hunger (2008 film)

Hunger
UK release poster
Directed bySteve McQueen
Written byEnda Walsh
Steve McQueen
Produced byLaura Hastings-Smith
Robin Gutch
StarringMichael Fassbender
Liam Cunningham
CinematographySean Bobbitt
Edited byJoe Walker
Music byDavid Holmes
Leo Abrahams
Production
companies
Distributed byPathé Distribution
Release dates
Running time
96 minutes[1]
CountriesIreland
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£1.7 million[2]

Hunger is a 2008 Irish-British historical drama film about the 1981 Irish hunger strike. It was directed by Steve McQueen (in his feature directorial debut) and starred Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, and Liam McMahon.

It premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival,[3] winning the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers.[4] It went on to win the Sydney Film Prize at the Sydney Film Festival, the Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics, best picture from the Evening Standard British Film Awards, and received two BAFTA nominations, winning one. The film was also nominated for eight awards at the 2009 IFTAs, winning six at the event.

The film stars Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member who led the second IRA hunger strike and participated in the no wash protest (led by Brendan "The Dark" Hughes) in which Irish republican prisoners tried to regain political status after it had been revoked by the British government in 1976. It outlines events in the Maze Prison in the period leading up to the hunger strike and its aftermath.

  1. ^ "HUNGER (15)". British Board of Film Classification. Pathé. 10 July 2008. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
  2. ^ "Hunger (2008)". Box Office Mojo. 7 June 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  3. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (11 May 2008). "Anger as new film of IRA hero Bobby Sands screens at Cannes". The Observer. London. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
  4. ^ "Bobby Sands film wins Cannes award". RTÉ.ie. 26 May 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2008.