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NOT BRANAGH’S
BELFAST
As wee drams of whiskey with an ‘e’ are raised Ulster-wide to Sir Kenneth’s Belfast the movie, up for seven Oscars at the time of going to press, explores the shiny Titanic city that grew up around the troubled streets of the director’s childhood.
B
elfast cab drivers didn’t used to get much call for Mountcollyer Street, a hotspot for sectarian violence during 30 years of ‘Troubles’. Half its row of terraced houses have been demnolished and weeds sprout from cracks in the pavement. But since the release of Branagh’s nostalgic homage to his native city, seen through the eyes of his nine-yearold self, tourists have been flocking to the derelict plot at number 96 where he grew up and the local
cinema that inspired his film career, now a Tesco superstore. Set in 1969 at the outbreak of The Troubles, the movie has been hailed ‘a tourism-boosting Valentine’s card to Belfast’ with its focus on neighbourly Protestants and Catholics, stoic Irish humour and the bright side of the road, with many nods to Van Morrison. The city has changed so much since then that the movie was mostly filmed on a reconstructed set at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire.
Branagh on the Belfast set in Hampshire 48 / APRIL 2022 ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE
