’71: a five-star film

…Genesis Cinema (£3.50 on Mondays), Mile End Road

Nasty, brutish and psychopathic: thus are portrayed the paramilitaries on both sides, the police and the army - the blundering army - in this gripping thriller set in Belfast in 1971.

I never thought I’d watch a film set in the six counties in The Troubles rooting all the way through for an English soldier, on the edge of my seat willing that soldier to survive. We know little about the soldier, who says almost nothing throughout the film and does almost nothing apart from struggle to stay alive.

He’s a sort of unknown soldier, caught up in events that are nothing to do with him and beyond his understanding or control.

’71 adopts an apolitical nihilism, depicting rampant internecine rivalry in which everyone is at each other’s throats: nationalists and loyalists; army and RUC; squaddies and Military Reaction Force undercover agents; officials and foot soldiers – on both sides of the divide. In the middle of this mayhem is Hook, randomly aided and/or hunted regardless of his nominal allegiance; asked if he is Protestant or Catholic, he replies pitifully “I don’t know... “. ’ Mark Kermode, Observer

‘We’re wrong-footed all the time by the combinations of terror, guilt, manoeuvring, expediency and revenge that even the most minor walk-on characters betray as motives.’ Tim Robey, Telegraph

‘The cinematographer Anthony Radcliffe (who also shot Pride) uses hand-held camerawork to crank up the tension but also brings a gritty lyricism to the film.’ Geoffrey MacNab, Independent