FORGOTTEN FACES OF THE BLITZ

Andy Saunders reflects on whether Steve McQueen's new wartime movie casts some uncomfortable light onto the popular history of Britain's ‘darkest hour'

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When the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London hosted a Q&A session with Sir Steve McQueen for his new film Blitz, it provided a guest audience with an opportunity to question the director and his historical consultant Joshua Levine as to the 'why' and 'how' of the film, its origins, its production, and the context of the storyline and the various elements of the 1940 Blitz. With the IWM Director General Caro Howell chairing the event, a range of challenging questions were posed to McQueen and Levine, with the audience later given an opportunity to ask their own questions.

At the outset McQueen pointed out that Blitz is, essentially, a love story rather than a movie from the 'war film' genre. He elaborated further by adding that here is a story of love – family love – between the central character George (Elliott Heffernan), his mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and George's grandfather, Gerald (Paul Weller).

McQueen said that an almost familial bond had built up between the three actors on set and that, as director, he had encouraged it. This had the benefit of not only helping create a genuine 'feel' of the bond between the three, but it also helped protect child actor, Heffernan, from what was an otherwise bewildering experience for any nine-year-old unfamiliar with the world of film or of acting.

McQueen went on to explain that the idea for Blitz came with the discovery of a photograph of a young biracial boy, waiting at a railway station to be evacuated. The photo posed the inevitable questions: who was this boy, what was his story and what happened to him?