Director Kenneth Branagh and actress Judi Dench discuss their film “Belfast” and how this film about growing up appeals to audiences of all ages.
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TRANSCRIPT
Thank you Alan. Now on behalf of AARP, I have to congratulate you Kenneth for winning the Best Picture in the Films for Grownups with Belfast. Well done.
Thank you very much, Judi. Thank you, Alan. Thank you everybody at AARP.
I believe it's the 20th celebration for this organization and it's a, it's funny, isn't it? Actually, it's a sort of, a bit of a paradox, Movies for Grownups, when this is a story about a very young person. Yes.
But it is partly about about growing up.
And one of the things that's been rewarding about how this film plays is how so many people, should we call them experienced, who've seen the film seem to recognize in themselves some kind of moment where nine-year-old Buddy begins the process of becoming a grownup, whether he likes it or not, because the violence in the, in, in the North of Ireland that he experiences, um, changes life for him and for his family, uh, forever more.
And as you know, we had a chance to put together an amazing film family with Judi playing the grandmother and Ciaran Hinds as pop and Jamie Dornan and, and Caitriona Balfe as the parents of a nine-year-old Buddy.
And it's largely inspired by things that happened in my own life.
But the story seems to touch something universal.
My own family is from Dublin. And I understand that, that family connection very, very much so.
And I also, because I've known Ken for a long, long time now, and we worked together so many times, I also understood the story he was telling, and very much the situation of that time, and so it rang great many bells with me. It was quite difficult, because we were all starting to be in lockdown.
And we were all incredibly well taken care of by Ken.
And it was a precious time.
And I think it meant a great deal to us all on many levels.
It's funny for me that the end of the movie, we had a sequence where older Buddy, grown-up Buddy comes back and visits Belfast, and we cut it out of the film because we believed that Buddy's younger story was maybe the one to concentrate on.
But it feels very nice that a movie like this, that we're so proud of and so privileged to have made, should be recognized.
And if Buddy didn't come back, the AARP came back with a grown-up voice that wasn't Buddy's, but was the voice of an audience that we've been so grateful for the support from. And for us, this is an amazing, amazing achievement, great recognition.
And we're very, very grateful to the AARP for recognizing Belfast as Best Picture.
