FOREIGN FILM: Belfast

Oct 6-9, 2022
Famed actor and director Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical project is a sentimental look back at his youth and the connection to his career as a filmmaker. Belfast depicts a violent, tumultuous time in Northern Ireland, but it does so through the innocent, exuberant eyes of a nine-year-old boy. In recalling his youthful days in an insular neighborhood in the titular city, Branagh has made a film that is both intimate and ambitious. Belfast tears at the heart-strings and will bring back memories of people’s own migration stories. Despite the grim facts of the story, Belfast is full of light and laughter and positively glows with warmth and the love of hearth and home. Belfast shows that even in the darkest of times, there is light to be found.