Belfast

Belfast (2021) is Kenneth Branagh's tender drama you can watch online, telling a turbulent chapter of history through the eyes of a nine-year-old. It's the summer of 1969 on a working-class street where Protestant and Catholic neighbours have always lived side by side — until barricades go up overnight and everything Buddy knows starts to crack.

The boy keeps doing what boys do: chasing a girl from class, dodging chores, soaking up films at the cinema. Around him, his parents face an impossible decision — stay among the people who raised them or leave for England and a safer life their kids never asked for. Branagh shoots almost the whole thing in black and white, saving colour for the screen and the stage that let Buddy escape.

Jude Hill leads a cast that includes Jamie Dornan, Caitriona Balfe, Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds. Drawn from the director's own childhood, the film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. A story about the home you carry with you long after you've gone. Watch on iFILM.