Summary
During the 2006 Northern Ireland peace talks, Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness (Colm Meaney) and Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall) are forced to travel by car together
During the 2006 Northern Ireland peace talks, Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness (Colm Meaney) and Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall) are forced to travel by car together
Echoes of Youssef Chahine's Cairo Station (1958) and Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now (2005) reverberate around Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji's tense drama, which follows Ahlaam (2006) and Son of Babylon (2009) in examining the impact of the American invasion on ordinary Iraqis. Set on 30 December 2006, the action follows suicide bomber Zahraa Ghandour, as she seeks to cause devastation at the grand re-opening of Baghdad Central Station on the first day of Eid. Initially distracted by the various hawkers and buskers on the concourse, Gandour is waylaid by cocky prosthetic limb salesman Ameer Jabarah, who tries to talk her round after he discovers her mission and she takes him hostage. Keeping his camera moving and pushing his luck with a couple of implausible plot points, Al-Daradji uses a flower seller and her brother, a reluctant teenage bride, a band of musicians, a couple of coarse American soldiers and a furtive woman with a holdall to generate a neorealist sense of atmosphere and suspense, while just about skirting sentimentality.
role | name |
---|---|
Ian Paisley | Timothy Spall |
Martin McGuinness | Colm Meaney |
Tony Blair | Toby Stephens |
Harry Patterson | John Hurt |
Jack | Freddie Highmore |
Kate Elgar | Catherine McCormack |
Rory McBride | Ian McIlhinney |
Gerry Adams | Ian Beattie |
Ian Paisley Jr | Barry Ward |
Mary Lou McDonald | Kristy Robinson |
role | name |
---|---|
Director | Nick Hamm |