'71

Set, as indicated by the title, in 1971, just before the Troubles in Northern Ireland came to a full, rolling boil, this superbly crafted war-zone thriller captures the confusion, bigotry and riven loyalties of the conflict in a neat dramatic microcosm. Young Private Gary Hook (the excellent Jack O'Connell from Starred Up) leaves his little brother behind in an English children's home when he's shipped out to Belfast. Within a day of arriving, his regiment is dispatched to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary as they search for guns in the Catholic Falls Road area, and a riot kicks off. Hook is separated from his unit and must make his way back to safety, navigating between the warring factions. There are good and bad people on both sides, but director Yann Demange's mission is not to preach politics but to deliver an extraordinarily tense adventure story that recalls John Carpenter's Escape from New York as much as Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday.