BELFAST

“Belfast is the most personal film I have ever made. About a place and a people, I love,” explains writer-director Kenneth Branagh. Belfast is the humorous and tender story of one boy’s childhood during the tumult of the late 1960s in the city of Branagh’s birth. Based on Branagh’s own experience, it follows Buddy, a 9-year-old boy who must chart a path towards adulthood in a world that’s suddenly turned upside down. Before the fateful summer of 1969, Buddy knows exactly who he is and where he belongs. He’s working-class, North Belfast, happy, loved and safe. His world is a fast and funny street-life, lived large in the heart of a community that laughs together and sticks together. Simmering social discontent suddenly explodes on Buddy’s own street and escalates, fast. Catholics vs. Protestants, loving neighbors just a heartbeat ago, are now set to be deadly foes. Buddy’s stable and loving community and everything he thought he understood about life is changed forever. Fortunately, joy, laughter, music and the formative magic of the movies remain. Winner of the 2021 Toronto Film Festival’s People Choice Award.  Q and A with Writer-Director Kenneth Branagh (recipient of MFF’s Spotlight Director award) following Saturday night’s screening.