‘Belfast’: Read The Screenplay For Kenneth Branagh’s Look Back At Growing Up In Northern Ireland
deadline.comKenneth Branagh has told the most epic stories of all between Shakespeare, Agatha Christie and Marvel. For his latest, Belfast, Branagh chose a more intimate and personal one.Based on his own childhood growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, Branagh wrote and directed Belfast.
Nine-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill) overhears bits and pieces about The Troubles in Ireland. He witnesses some of the violence in the street, but he’s more concerned with playing with his friends, and why his father (Jamie Dornan) is gone so much of the time.Buddy watches a lot of movies and television, the arts that would become Branagh’s forte.
He sees his father as a big-screen hero and his mother (Caitriona Balfe) as his safe space. His grandparents (Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds) also live in Belfast and are a constant in his life.
Plus, he’s also a boy looking for love.Branagh said his family got caught up in The Troubles, and recalls witnessing a riot in the streets the way he portrayed Buddy observing it.
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