Bloody Sunday

Derry, 30 January 1972. The civil rights movement holds a march in defiance of a ban. The film covers about twenty-four hours, from the Saturday evening through the march, the army opening fire and the counting of the bodies that night. At its centre is Ivan Cooper, the MP who organised the march and argued for non-violence. Paul Greengrass directed. James Nesbitt plays Cooper, Tim Pigott-Smith plays Major General Robert Ford, Gerard McSorley plays the RUC chief superintendent Frank Lagan and Mary Moulds plays Bernadette Devlin. The screenplay started from Eyewitness Bloody Sunday, the 1997 book by the Derry-born writer Don Mullan, made up of first-hand accounts. Mullan also recruited local people from Derry for small parts, so some of those who lived through the day appear in the reconstruction of their own city. Most of it was shot not in Derry but in Ballymun in north Dublin. Only a few locations were used in Derry itself: Guildhall Square and Creggan, on the actual route of the 1972 march. Greengrass shot the whole thing handheld in documentary language, leaving scenes open to interruption and noise. Who it is for: viewers who like political events built hour by hour and Greengrass's documentary manner. Who it is not for: anyone expecting balance. The film takes a side and does not hide it.