Hunger

Hunger is the masterful first feature from Turner Prize-winning visual artist Steve McQueen. Starring Michael Fassbender (300, Tarantino’s upcoming INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS), in one of the breakout performances of the year, Hunger is a bracingly visceral look at the final six weeks in the life of Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands.

In 1981, the conflict in Northern Ireland was a deadly serious battle. In the infamous H-block of Belfast's Maze Prison, Republican inmates refuse to bathe and wear uniforms to protest against Britain’s rejection of their plea to be recognized as political prisoners. When this fails to get results, Bobby Sands (played with unflinching passion by Michael Fassbender) decides to take a different tack and refuses to eat until the British government acknowledges the IRA as a legitimate political organization. But is it suicide or martyrdom?