Some Mother's Son (1996)

Directed by

Terry George

Genre

drama film

Country

United States, Ireland

Runtime

1h 52m

Rated

R

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 41 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A drama set in 1981 Northern Ireland. IRA prisoners in the Maze Prison go on a hunger strike to demand political status. The mothers of two of the strikers face a painful choice: honor their sons' wishes or intervene to save their lives.

sombertenseemotionally heavyharrowingintrospectiveslow-pacedgroundedmorally complex

What happens

Some Mother's Son is a 1996 Irish-American film written and directed by Irish filmmaker Terry George, co-written by Jim Sheridan, and based on the true story of the 1981 hunger strike in the Maze Prison, in Northern Ireland. Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoner Bobby Sands (played by John Lynch) led a protest against the treatment of IRA prisoners, claiming that they should be treated as prisoners of war rather than criminals. The mothers of two of the strikers, played by Helen Mirren and Fionnula Flanagan, fight to save their sons' lives. When the prisoners go on hunger strike and become incapacitated, the mothers must decide whether to abide by their sons' wishes, or to go against them and have them forcibly fed. Helen Mirren and John Lynch had already acted together in the 1984 Troubles-related film Cal. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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