Belfast

"No matter how far you go, you never forget where you came from."

2021 1h 38m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 1,743

DramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Buddy is a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a momentous choice: hope the conflict will pass or leave everything they know behind for a new life.

“No matter how far you go, you never forget where you came from.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Amazon VideoRent

Apple TV StoreRent

Google Play MoviesRent

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

Jude Hill
Buddy
Jamie Dornan
Pa
Caitríona Balfe
Ma
Lewis McAskie
Will
Judi Dench
Granny
Ciarán Hinds
Pop
Lara McDonnell
Moira
Colin Morgan
Billy Clanton

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writers: Kenneth Branagh
Languages: English, Portuguese
Countries: United Kingdom, Northern Ireland

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 5 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Portuguese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, Northern Ireland.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, shot by Haris Zambarloukos. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Van Morrison. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Úna Ní Dhonghaíle shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jude Hill and Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kenneth Branagh directs. Haris Zambarloukos behind the camera. Van Morrison scores. Úna Ní Dhonghaíle cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, Northern Ireland. Dialogue in English, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 4.5× over at the box office.
2Released 5 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Portuguese.
4International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, Northern Ireland.
5Directed by Kenneth Branagh, shot by Haris Zambarloukos. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Van Morrison. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Úna Ní Dhonghaíle shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Jude Hill and Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "No matter how far you go, you never forget where you came from.".
10IMDB entry: tt12789558 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Haris Zambarloukos
Original score: Van Morrison
Editing: Úna Ní Dhonghaíle
Production design: Jim Clay
Costume design: Charlotte Walter
Makeup / hair: Wakana Yoshihara
VFX supervisor: Matthew Glen
Sound: Niv Adiri
Stunt coordinator: James O'Donnell
Runtime: 98 min · 1h 38m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $11,000,000
Box office: $49,158,343
Return: 447% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Belfast (2021)

Awards

Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award
European Film Award for Best Costume Designer
European Film Award for Best Production Designer

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Kenneth Branagh

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Adriano2022-01-07
★ 4/10
I wanted to like this more than I did. It's fine, but it just doesn't resonate terribly well with me. Not to mention it feels a bit like a stage-play, taking place all on one street. I understand it's supposed to be the world through a child's eyes, but there's not much there. Conversations and issues feel breezed through, and yet 'Belfast' sags in the middle around the third time they have the same set of conversations. It's good enough, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone.
r96sk2022-02-10
★ 8/10
A swell little film, this. I may not have a connection to the events portrayed onscreen, but <em>'Belfast'</em> is - despite the not so good true events that it's retelling - is a pleasant film to watch. With a perfectly timed length of around 90 minutes, this 2021 flick holds a lot of heart - it's also rather funny, it had me laughing a fair number of times. The star of the film is undoubtedly youngster Jude Hill, who is an absolute joy in the role of Buddy - some performance from the 11-year-old! Buddy's connections with every single character are lovely, especially with those played by Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench - wait... that was Judi Dench?! I legit didn't even notice until the end credits, which shows how convincing her performance as a Northern Irish grandmother is... or perhaps I need my eyesight tested, who's to say. Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe also merit props, in what is a very good release from Kenneth Branagh & Co. The target audience, along with others of course, will adore it, I'm sure. Also... love the choice of black-and-white, fwiw.
tmdb280390232022-08-27
★ 8/10
Belfast is packed with powerful images — shot in Haris Zambarloukos’s majestic black-and-white cinematography (except for a handful of color shots at key moments, notably the escapist windows that film and TV offer the characters) — beginning with an early scene in which the young protagonist, Buddy (Jude Hill), armed with a wooden sword and a shield/dumpster lid, confronts a mob of unionist protestants who come to attack the houses and businesses of Catholics on Buddy’s Street. In an inferior movie, Buddy would be foolish enough to think that his makeshift weapons could measure up to the rioters’ Molotov cocktails; here, however, it marks precisely the beginning of the end of childhood innocence — a point driven home later by a reading of chapter thirteen of the First Epistle to the Corinthians ("When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but then I became a man and left childish things behind”). The film’s depictions of violence are doubly effective because Branagh resorts to them sparingly, and when he does, he shoots them in a realistic style; when a car explodes in the middle of the street, you can bet your sweet ass it doesn’t just go up in CGI flames. The most striking images, however, are those whose composition evokes an air of domesticity; several of them have in common the background presence, as if detached from the action, of Judi Dench. Branagh, who has collaborated with her on almost a dozen productions, knows very well that the veteran actress is able to conjure, simply by virtue of being there, enough gravitas to anchor a scene in the real world (now, this is not to say that Dench is reduced to prop status; quite the contrary, her character provides the emotional center of the history). These images stay with us because they are all about what is at stake in the film: a fragile lifestyle in which “We have known this street and all the streets around it all our lives. And every man, woman, and child that lives in every damn house, whether we like it or not. And I like it. And you say you have a little garden for the boys? But here, they can play wherever they want, because everyone knows them, everyone loves them, and everyone cares for them.” Establishing this delicate way of life is the reason that the threat of violence is so much more effective in creating tension than the violence itself. All things considered, Belfast is an episodic slice-of-life-seen-through-a-young-boy’s-eyes that isn’t, believe it or not, a million miles removed from A Christmas Story, and indeed the script introduces a placid, elementary sense of humor that nicely counterbalances the more dramatic material.