Story of a young squaddie lost on the street of Belfast during the Troubles, ’71 (9 BIFA nominations), the new Yann Demage (Top Boy) movie is a thriller based in an almost Apocaliptic Belfast, even if we are in the 1970.

The RUC house to house search becomes a conflict that also involves women and children. When are fired the first shots is the chaos and young soldiers find themselves alone separated from their commander.

Private Gary Hook from Derby (rising star Jack O’Connell, 300, Private Peacuful read here about this great movie based on Michael Morpungo‘s book, United ), is a young squaddie fresh of training school who find himself running across unknow streets waiting the dark of the night to try to come back to the base. But things are more complicated and politics games and roles between troops, RUS and undercover agents are not clear and discounted. The only one who is really interested in find him, possibly alive, is Lt. Armitage (Sam Reid, Posh- The Riot Club and soon in Despite the Falling Snow, read here about this exciting project, again terrific as we are used to see him lately). In the middle of this unclair situation there is Hook.

With Demage‘s work we are lucky to see everything with Hook‘s eyes and with his prospective. It’s like to be “superpartes” as him. When they ask him if he is Catholic or Protestant he answers: ” I don’t know…”

Thanks to marvellous and perfect screenplay by Scottish playwright Gregory Burke we are wrong-footed from the start all the time by a mix of guilt, terror, revenge and expediency.

The memorable score by David Holmes is the icing on the cake.

At the end the movie shows only one truth: the only objective is to stay alive, no matter what it costs.

” [Belfast] is not abroad”

Release date:   UK 10 October 2014

Spain 24 October 2014

USA 27 February 2015