Troubles and Northern Ireland: Representations in Film of Belfast as a Site of Conflict

Abstract

abstract:This paper explores three films with very different narratives to help map out and frame British colonial representations of Ireland, and the Northern Ireland conflict in particular, over several decades: from a fatalistic, film noir evocation of a troubled urban landscape in Odd Man Out (1947) to a video-game-like struggle for survival in an urban maze in '71 (2014), culminating in a romantic and ahistorical evocation of a memorialised city-space in Belfast (2021). Much has been written about the long history of struggle and violence in Northern Ireland that is outside the purview of this paper, yet readers need to grapple with this history if they are to fully appreciate and contextualise such complex political, religious, economic and cultural tensions.