Director Steve McQueen’s films offer unflinching looks at difficult subjects. He helmed 2008’s Hunger about the Irish hunger strike, Shame (2011), which was an unsparing look at sex addiction, and 12 Years a Slave (2013) about a free Black man sold into slavery before finally being freed again after twelve years. The latter film won several Oscars — including Best Picture.
McQueen’s latest is the World War II drama Blitz, starring Saorsie Ronan as a mother searching for her son in London after he was evacuated due to the bombing of the city. McQueen tells The Treatment about wanting to highlight the essential role women played during the war, the bond between Ronan and Elliott Heffernan (who plays her son in Blitz), and the film’s real and metaphorical explosions.
Elvis Mitchell and Steve McQueen at NPR West. Photo credit: Rebecca Mooney