Hunger

Steve McQueen

United Kingdom, Ireland

2008

96 minutes

Color

2.35:1

English

504

Synopsis

With Hunger, British filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen has turned one of history’s most controversial acts of political defiance into a jarring, unforgettable cinematic experience. In Northern Ireland’s Maze prison in 1981, twenty-seven-year-old Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands went on a hunger strike to protest the British government’s refusal to recognize him and his fellow IRA inmates as political prisoners. McQueen dramatizes prison existence and Sands’s final days in a way that is purely experiential, even abstract, a succession of images full of both beauty and horror. Featuring an intense performance by Michael Fassbender, Hunger is an unflinching, transcendent depiction of what a human being is willing to endure to be heard.

Cast

Bobby Sands Michael Fassbender
Raymond Lohan, guardStuart Graham
Raymond’s motherHelena Bereen
Father Dominic MoranLiam Cunningham
Lohan’s wifeLaine Megaw
Davey GillenBrian Milligan
Gerry CampbellLiam McMahon
Gerry’s girlfriendKaren Hassan
The governerFrank McCusker

Credits

ScreenplayEnda Walsh and Steve McQueen
ProducerRobin Gutch and Laura Hastings-Smith
Director of photographySean Bobbitt
EditingJoe Walker
Production DesignTom McCullagh
Costume DesignAnushia Nieradzik
Makeup and hairJacqueline Fowler
MusicDavid Holmes and Leo Abrahams
DirectorSteve McQueen

Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Steve McQueen (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
  • Video interviews with McQueen and actor Michael Fassbender
  • A short documentary on the making of Hunger, including interviews with McQueen, Fassbender, actors Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, and Brian Milligan, writer Enda Walsh, and producer Robin Gutch
  • “The Provo’s Last Card?,” a 1981 episode of the BBC program Panorama, about the Maze prison hunger strikes and the political and civilian reactions across Northern Ireland
  • Theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Chris Darke

From the Current

McQueen, Beyond Hunger

Mar 2, 2010

If the harrowing, formally daring Hunger, just out in Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions, left you wanting to deepen your acquaintance with director . . .

Press Notes: Hunger

Feb 24, 2010

According to critics, rarely has a film so skillfully combined poetry and atrocity as in Hunger, Steve McQueen’s astonishing Cannes award winner about Bobby Sands’s 1981 hunger strike at Northern Ireland’s Maze prison, now available in Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions . . .

Hunger: On the Threshold

by Chris Darke Feb 17, 2010

The feature film debut of British artist Steve McQueen, Hunger dramatizes the final weeks in the life of Irish Republican Army commander . . .

Next for McQueen

Dec 10, 2009

British visual artist turned narrative filmmaker Steve McQueen is getting back in the director’s chair following the success of his award-winning Hunger. Variety announced this week that McQueen will be joining forces with Focus Features to make a biopic about Nigerian musician . . .

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Available Editions

Hunger Criterion DVD Add to Cart

16 Feb 2010

DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price

$31.96

Hunger Criterion Blu-Ray Add to Cart

16 Feb 2010

Blu-Ray

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price

$31.96