While she was promoting the film Fifty Dead Men Walking in 2008, American actress Rose McGowan put a lot of noses out of joint.

“I imagine, had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100 per cent have been in the IRA,” she said, adding that her “heart just broke for the cause.” Inevitably, her comments provoked uproar, with author Martin McGartland, upon whose novel the film was based, being among those to condemn the Hollywood star.
The Troubles are quite clearly a touchy subject. There have been a number of very powerful movies based on the Northern conflict, including In The Name Of The Father, Bloody Sunday and Hunger. And Fifty Dead Men Walking was a decent effort too, which was critically well-received and picked up a number of awards – the hullabaloo over Rose McGowan’s pronouncement notwithstanding.
Now, a fresh controversy has erupted around a new film about the North. A Belfast Story, starring Colm Meaney, aims to explore “life after terrorism”. Its synopsis reads: “Set in a city which has weathered hundreds of years of hatred, 30 years of bombs, and a war without winners, just victims. A new era brings new risks. There is peace, but that can also be deadly.”
For its first pre-promotional move, the director Nathan Todd oversaw the creation of an especially elaborate press kit: a wooden box, containing among other things a balaclava, nails, duct tape and various pieces of accompanying artwork including fake newspaper clippings, surveillance photographs and what appears to be a child’s drawing. The reaction when it was circulated was swift.
Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine took to Twitter to upload a shot of its contents and note how genuinely stunned he was.
“Not quite sure what point whoever sent it is trying to make,” he said, “but I’m pretty sure it’s a moronic one. I shall not be seeing this movie.”
Hewitt, originally from Banbridge in Co. Down, continued: “I’d like to sit down with whoever came up with that little brainwave and explain to them what growing up during The Troubles was like.”
It seems Hewitt is not alone in feeling affronted. British PR firm Way To Blue immediately resigned from the film’s promotional campaign, stating: “We no longer feel we can be associated with this film and will no longer be working on the publicity campaign.”
Looking after PR in the Republic are O’Herlihy Communications who told us, “Our only function has been to supply a press list to the film production. We had no function or any part in relation to the compilation of the press kit. We are currently considering our position on continuing our association with the film.”
Todd, a former student at Queen’s University Belfast, went on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster to apologise. However, he insisted that there’s more to the box than a cheap publicity stunt.
“Obviously, the intention is not to offend anyone,” he proffered. “We apologise if we did. The intention is to raise awareness for something that we did, that delves into some legitimate questions and tells some interesting stories about the city and the country.
“The idea was to interest people in a movie we were making which is essentially the story of the two choices which face Belfast: do we engage in retribution or reconciliation? The box, when you open it, gives you this choice. It’s got artefacts of violence on one side and artefacts of living happily to an old age on the other.”
Having examined the box, this writer can indeed confirm that it does provoke questions, chiefly – how could it ever have possibly seemed like a good idea to anyone?
Todd was keen to stress that the box is designed to educate, adding that it was “important for us to capture the weight and physicality of violence”. A Belfast Story may well do just that. And it’s already received a great deal more publicity than the average independent film.
But whether that can be turned into success at the box-office remains to be seen. Let’s hope that it’s at least as good as Fifty Dead Men Walking.