More great news for Irish film as John Boorman’s latest film Queen and Country, a sequel to his Oscar-nominated film Hope and Glory, has been chosen for the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight selection at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, which takes place next month from 15th-25th May. The film has been produced with support from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.
Set in 1952, Queen and Country stars Caleb Landry Jones as an 18-year-old British man who joins the National Service and meets an amoral prankster who becomes his friend. They are assigned as instructors in a training camp while others are shipped out to fight in the Korean War. The film also stars Pat Shortt, Sinead Cusack, Callum Turner, David Thewlis and Richard E. Grant. The film is set 10 years after Hope and Glory and centres on the same characters.
Commenting on the news James Hickey, Chief Executive, Bord Scannán na hÉireann/Irish Film Board (IFB) said “We are delighted for John Boorman to have his film QUEEN Queen and Country selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival. Cannes is arguably the most important film festival and film market in the world and Ireland will be well represented there with two World Premieres, Queen and Country in Directors Fortnight, along with [Ken Loach’s] Jimmy’s Hall in Official Competition.”
Boorman has had a long relationship with the Cannes Film Festival. His last film to screen at the festival was Irish film The General, which told the story of Irish criminal Martin Cahill, and picked up the award for Best Director in 1998.
Previous Irish films to have been selected for the Directors Fortnight in Cannes include Lenny Abrahamson’s Garage starring Pat Shortt, Ruairí Robinson’s sci-fi Last Days on Mars, Alicia Duffy’s All Good Children, and Rebecca Daly’s The Other Side of Sleep.