Hunger
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.
Director-Approved Special Edition Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Steve McQueen, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- 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
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A new essay by film critic Chris Darke
New cover by Rasmus Alkestrand
Director-Approved Special Edition Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Steve McQueen, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- 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
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A new essay by film critic Chris Darke
New cover by Rasmus Alkestrand
Cast
- Michael Fassbender
- Bobby Sands
- Stuart Graham
- Raymond Lohan, guard
- Helena Bereen
- Raymond’s mother
- Liam Cunningham
- Father Dominic Moran
- Laine Megaw
- Lohan’s wife
- Brian Milligan
- Davey Gillen
- Liam McMahon
- Gerry Campbell
- Karen Hassan
- Gerry’s girlfriend
- Frank McCusker
- The governer
Credits
- Screenplay
- Enda Walsh
- Producer
- Robin Gutch
- Producer
- Laura Hastings-Smith
- Director of photography
- Sean Bobbitt
- Editing
- Joe Walker
- Production design
- Tom McCullagh
- Costume Design
- Anushia Nieradzik
- Makeup and hair
- Jacqueline Fowler
- Music
- David Holmes
- Music
- Leo Abrahams
- Director
- Steve McQueen
- Screenplay
- Steve McQueen
Edition introduction to Hunger
