So, the Turner Prize shortlist has been announced. Big. Fucking. Deal. Of more interest, to me at least, is the news that artist Steve McQueen has directed his first feature film and like ‘Deadpan’—his Buster Keaton mis-en-scene film that took the prize and raised the boring “is it art?” question—Hunger, given its subject, sounds no less controversial:
An uncompromising new film that examines the last six weeks in the life of Maze prison hunger striker Bobby Sands has drawn criticism from those who see it is an untimely celebration of the martyrdom of a terrorist.
The 96-minute film, Hunger, which has been part-funded by Channel 4, will have its world premiere at the Cannes film festival, which opens on Wednesday.
Sands, a member of the IRA jailed for possessing a gun, achieved iconic status for the Irish Republican movement when he died 27 years ago this month in the infamous H-Blocks at Long Kesh after 66 days of hunger strike in protest at prisoners losing their political status.
The film is the directorial debut of the Turner Prize-winning British artist Steve McQueen, best known for his recent work for the Imperial War Museum. An official war artist, he produced a provocative series of postage stamps bearing the faces of dead soldiers who had served in Iraq.
The artist’s first feature film has now placed him in controversial territory once more. ‘In Hunger there is no simplistic notion of “hero”, or “martyr” or “victim”. My intention is to provoke debate in the audience, to challenge our own morality through film,’ McQueen said.
‘If this film disarms the viewer, removes their barrier for a moment in time, then we’ve got them and through that experience the film can have some power, some meaning and hopefully make a difference. If, through entertainment, one can grab people’s attention, then it is great.’
But Richard O’Rawe, who was the IRA prisoner’s press officer at the time when Sands was dying, is not happy about a film that makes the hunger strike an artistic emblem. A former IRA prisoner himself, O’Rawe expressed concern that any life story about his comrade ‘did not reflect the narrative of the later peace process’.
Related: The Stuckists’ Turner Prize Protest Apology
First posted: Wednesday, May 14th, 2008.
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