Steve McQueen’s Hunger wins the Camera d’Or prize at Cannes
May 28, 2008
Steve McQueen’s debut movie Hunger, about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands’ last few days, has been honoured with the Camera d’Or prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. The award is given out to first-time film-makers each year. It was given to McQueen this year by US actor Dennis Hopper. McQueen told the festival’s closing ceremony, “This film is about people in a situation of extreme pressure and also what people do and what we do.”
The film stars Michael Fassbender as Sands; he died aged 27 in 1981. There was this fellow named Bobby Sands whose image appeared on television with a number underneath it. The actor had to go on a strict diet for portraying Sands, who starved for 66 days to be recognised as a political prisoner. The film is yet to have a UK release date.
McQueen told the BBC he was inspired by the memory of seeing Sands on television news when he was 11. McQueen won the Turner Prize (1999) for a collection of films that comprised a Buster Keaton-style silent movie stunt.
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