Steve McQueen’s Blitz, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan, will be the closing night selection of the 62nd New York Film Festival, making its North American premiere, said the fest’s parent Film At Lincoln Center.
The re-creation of London during its blitzkrieg by the Germans during World War II is told from the parallel perspectives of working-class single mother Rita (Ronan) and her 9-year-old son, George (newcomer Heffernan), who become separated within the labyrinth of a city under siege.
Oscar-winner McQueen (12 Years a Slave), who also wrote and produced, offers an unusual multicultural portrait of 1940s London.
Supporting cast includes Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clémentine, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham, Hayley Squires, and Paul Weller. “It is with immense pride, gratitude, and fondness that I’m able to return to the New York Film Festival with Blitz,” said McQueen. “I’ve been lucky enough to have enjoyed a number of memorable experiences at the festival and with New York audiences, and I’m enormously grateful to have been invited back for Closing Night.” NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim called the film “a vivid and visceral depiction of life during wartime, a meticulous historical account that resonates unmistakably with our current age of endless war.
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