Feelings and Facts: Agency in Northern Irish Cinema

Abstract

Northern Irish cinema has long had an ambivalent relationship to the representation of history, sometimes implicitly rejecting ‘rational’ or ‘objective’ approaches in favour of emphasising the untidy and subjective emotions of its historical narratives. More recently, the films made in and about Northern Ireland have reflected a loss of agency, in particular, the sense of efficacy, locus of control and prospection which creates a belief in our ability to change our environment. Meanwhile, neoliberalism, placing the responsibility for recovery on the individual while removing systems of economic, social and cultural support, creates the conditions under which this loss of agency becomes crisis. The promotion of individual interest obstructs collective political action and progressive change. This article considers the representation of agency in two recent films about the Troubles, Belfast (2022) and I Am Belfast (2015), suggesting that film can – but does not necessarily – offer a space for emotional reflection and restoration of agency.