Dubai Telegraph - Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival

EUR -
AED 3.897588
AFN 71.62565
ALL 97.2537
AMD 411.203272
ANG 1.913552
AOA 968.293905
ARS 1058.745012
AUD 1.627557
AWG 1.911648
AZN 1.807819
BAM 1.955455
BBD 2.143822
BDT 126.883565
BGN 1.95804
BHD 0.399961
BIF 3075.191117
BMD 1.061143
BND 1.421016
BOB 7.363046
BRL 6.140859
BSD 1.061762
BTN 89.662386
BWP 14.445129
BYN 3.47465
BYR 20798.394027
BZD 2.140123
CAD 1.480899
CDF 3044.418227
CHF 0.936171
CLF 0.037916
CLP 1046.211864
CNY 7.674607
COP 4713.329932
CRC 543.329624
CUC 1.061143
CUP 28.120278
CVE 110.729863
CZK 25.391006
DJF 188.586074
DKK 7.45901
DOP 63.933705
DZD 141.600995
EGP 52.213665
ETB 128.927564
FJD 2.404653
GBP 0.833113
GEL 2.907297
GHS 17.418672
GMD 75.870655
GNF 9158.721715
GTQ 8.204937
GYD 222.11867
HKD 8.254453
HNL 26.592299
HTG 139.651911
HUF 410.802767
IDR 16762.975014
ILS 3.985736
INR 89.551307
IQD 1390.096744
IRR 44679.406949
ISK 147.498979
JMD 168.710198
JOD 0.752456
JPY 164.232506
KES 137.417871
KGS 91.474118
KHR 4302.933102
KMF 488.523524
KRW 1494.624597
KWD 0.326418
KYD 0.884785
KZT 526.901752
LAK 23302.690344
LBP 95078.373015
LKR 310.479784
LRD 196.6824
LSL 19.280981
LTL 3.133278
LVL 0.641875
LYD 5.162473
MAD 10.527599
MDL 19.005538
MGA 4923.70171
MKD 61.609117
MMK 3446.549617
MOP 8.506897
MRU 42.335075
MUR 49.990475
MVR 16.405298
MWK 1841.082561
MXN 21.872228
MYR 4.708282
MZN 67.833584
NAD 19.281345
NGN 1774.951722
NIO 39.023514
NOK 11.770787
NPR 143.459418
NZD 1.793877
OMR 0.40856
PAB 1.061762
PEN 4.000181
PGK 4.260222
PHP 62.350627
PKR 295.050664
PLN 4.354234
PYG 8295.534619
QAR 3.863355
RON 4.976865
RSD 116.971889
RUB 104.249364
RWF 1445.806728
SAR 3.987149
SBD 8.850728
SCR 14.422986
SDG 638.273057
SEK 11.587852
SGD 1.421194
SLE 24.247182
SOS 605.912547
SRD 37.389344
STD 21963.508396
SVC 9.290797
SZL 18.707922
THB 36.991474
TJS 11.2858
TMT 3.72461
TND 3.339947
TOP 2.485304
TRY 36.467135
TTD 7.215065
TWD 34.443094
TZS 2824.618246
UAH 43.973732
UGX 3901.494647
USD 1.061143
UYU 44.764202
UZS 13614.459211
VES 47.430329
VND 26899.963703
XAF 655.872046
XCD 2.867791
XDR 0.799896
XOF 645.174431
XPF 119.331742
YER 265.099936
ZAR 19.251725
ZMK 9551.56176
ZMW 28.906256
ZWL 341.687469
  • RBGPF

    0.0300

    60.22

    +0.05%

  • BCC

    -2.0100

    141.13

    -1.42%

  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    24.54

    -0.73%

  • BCE

    -0.1600

    27.69

    -0.58%

  • RYCEF

    -0.1700

    7.16

    -2.37%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    13.67

    +0.15%

  • CMSD

    -0.2100

    24.75

    -0.85%

  • NGG

    -1.2400

    62.9

    -1.97%

  • RIO

    -1.4000

    61.2

    -2.29%

  • JRI

    -0.3000

    13.22

    -2.27%

  • GSK

    -0.8300

    35.52

    -2.34%

  • RELX

    -1.2100

    46.59

    -2.6%

  • AZN

    0.4000

    65.19

    +0.61%

  • BTI

    0.0900

    35.24

    +0.26%

  • BP

    -0.7600

    28.16

    -2.7%

  • VOD

    -0.8500

    8.47

    -10.04%

Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival / Photo: HENRY NICHOLLS - AFP

Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival

Steve McQueen's latest film "Blitz" is a "sobering" reminder of war's grim realities as people increasingly "look away", the Oscar-winning director told AFP ahead of its premiere Wednesday.

Text size:

The gritty World War II epic, which opened the London Film Festival, chronicles the fallout from the Nazis' relentless 1940-41 bombing campaign of Britain by focusing on a nine-year-old mixed-race boy, George.

He embarks on a fraught journey back to his mother (Saoirse Ronan) and grandfather (Paul Weller) in London's heavily targeted East End, after running away while being sent to the countryside.

McQueen, who also wrote the screenplay, opted to tell the story through a child's eyes because he wanted "a clean sheet" to show war's "perversity".

"With adults... there's a moment where we tend to look away, or tend to compromise or not listen," he explained.

"But with a child it's good and bad, right and wrong... it's very sobering."

In one scene, George -- impressively played by newcomer Elliott Heffernan -- looks on bewildered at the utter destruction wrought on his neighbourhood by the German bombs.

In an earlier moment, he watches another runaway boy get hit by a train.

– 'That's my in' -

The film stems in part from 55-year-old McQueen's upbringing in London, alongside other inspirations during his decades-spanning career as an artist and filmmaker.

A 2003 commission by the British capital's Imperial War Museum to visit Iraq as one of its "official artists" during the conflict proved formative.

The key breakthrough in conceptualising "Blitz" came during unrelated research for a 2020 television project, when he discovered a WWII-era photograph of a black child waiting in a railway station to be evacuated.

"I thought 'that's my in!' I need to see that particular narrative, to see that idea of the Blitz through his eyes," he recalled.

The choice allowed McQueen to portray some of the racism that existed in 1940s Britain, as well as other issues, such as female empowerment, typically less highlighted in mythologies around the Blitz.

"As much as we're fighting our enemy, we're fighting ourselves in one way, shape, form, reality... it's sexism, it's racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, there's all kinds of things going on," he said.

"You can't make a movie about a society without reflecting on what happens on the ground in whatever form it takes."

- 'Timeless' -

First and foremost, McQueen -- an Oscar-winner in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave" -- wanted its "backbone" to be a familial love story.

"The most important thing in this narrative was love -- love between the mother and her son... that's timeless," he said.

While that central storyline was fictionalised, he based some characters on real people and researched extensively "to make things as real as possible".

"The richness of our research just brought up so many things," the filmmaker noted.

"I didn't want to put my stencil onto it. I wanted to find out... what actually was going on."

The desire for "ordinary people" to drive the story means the soldiers who fought on the front lines or famous leaders like Prime Minister Winston Churchill are absent in "Blitz".

"That was not my narrative," McQueen emphasised.

The director is particularly pleased to have unveiled the film in London.

"For this particular movie, for me, there was no other place I wanted to debut it."

– 'Exceptional' -

McQueen and his cast were full of praise for Heffernan, who landed the part after impressing in an open casting submission.

"Often, you don't know what you're looking for, but you recognise it when you see it," he explained.

"On his casting tape I thought 'this guy, there's a stillness in him'... he's fascinating. You want to look at him, almost like a silent movie star."

McQueen was also wowed by Ronan and the connection she forged with Heffernan.

"There was a real camaraderie, a protective quality, to her and Elliott... you saw it on screen -- it was wonderful," he recalled.

Ronan, who began acting at a similar age to Heffernan, praised McQueen for being willing to build the film around the two actors' evolving on-set rapport.

"What naturally started to come out for the two of us was a friendship," she told a London news conference Wednesday.

"It all felt very organic. Nothing felt too contrived."

Heffernan credited Ronan for helping him deliver what's been called an "exceptional" performance.

"When we first met, we just clicked," he said. "It was like we'd known each other for years."

"Blitz" is in select theatres from November 1, before being released on Apple TV+ from November 22.

C.Masood--DT