SUNDAY

UK, 2002, 95 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Charles Mc Dougall.

Sunday is an award-winning re-creation of the events of January 1972 in Londonderry, nicknamed afterwards Bloody Sunday. The film uses drama as well as television and newsreel footage of the time to recreate the period and the atmosphere.

The film focuses on the British troops, the officer in charge, his later being decorated by the queen - while the audience knowing his ruthlessness in planning. There are glimpses of Ted Heath, his cabinet advisers. There is also the portrait of the judge who was to preside over the subsequent inquiry for the events of January, the massacre of Irish citizens.

The film focuses on the period, Londonderry as safe, the British occupation, the growing resentment, the move for civil rights, the clashes between Catholics and Protestants. The film also highlights one family, the Youngs, on the eve of the demonstration, two sons and their going to the march. The film also focuses on the family of an electrician who works for the British troops.

The film recreates the march, the mayhem as the British troops come in and fire on ordinary citizens. There are allegations later that some of the young men were armed. When the film moves to the re-creation of witnesses giving testimony at the inquiry, it also moves to the subsequent grief of the families, the funeral sequences, and then another re-creation of the massacre. With this culmination, the action of the British soldiers and the death of innocent people remain with the audience. The film won a SIGNIS award at the Monte Carlo Film Festival of 2002.

The film is significant because it was written by Liverpool writer Jimmy Mc Govern, writer of Cracker, Priest, Liam, Hillsboro.

1. A docu-drama of a significant event in Northern Irish history? Bloody Sunday? The role of the troops, the action of the marchers, the subsequent inquiry? Justice still not done at the beginning of the 21st century?

2. The re-creation of the period, the Londonderry setting, the use of newsreel footage?

3. The focus on the British, the commander, his strategies, his orders? The ordinary troops themselves, age, experience, gung-ho attitudes, saying they couldn't wait to confront the marchers? Coming in the tanks, the shootings, the episodes on the television screen in the pub while they celebrated and ridiculed the Irish? The witnesses in the inquiry? The man who wanted to give testimony not being required? The judge and his summing up of the quality of the testimony of the soldiers and his judgment on their actions?

4. The atmosphere of the times, the difficulties in Northern Ireland, republicans, unionists, the clashes? The discussions about the strategy of demonstrations and gunmen emerging from the demonstrators and causing mayhem? Motivation for the strictness of the British reaction? British politics, attitudes towards Northern Ireland, concern, disdain?

5. The focus on the Young family, the various members, the outing, the dance, the broken shoe? The family of the electrician, his wife, her brother, the decisions to go on the march?

6. The visualising of the march, familiar material? The soldiers coming? The beginning of the shooting, the panic, the attack by the crowd? The shootings, innocent people dying? The young men? Schoolgirls? The old man wanting to help the wounded man crying out? The initial visualising of these sequences? Their being replayed in more vivid detail at the end of the film?

7. The aftermath, Johnny Young dead, Leo Young being taken, interrogated, the man at his shoulder ridiculing the Irish? The boys having helped the young man into the car, examined him, the allegation that he had nail bombs in his pocket? The people going to the hospital, seeing the corpses in the mortuary? The preparation for the funerals, the wakes at home? The anguished response of the families? Johnny's sister and her desperate shouting and crying? Her mother being prepared to forgive, her explanations of why she would forgive? Leo's wife and her concern? Mr Young and his grief? People at the wake? The funeral, the coffins, their being carried, the archbishop in the church?

8. The inquiry, the witnesses, the giving of testimony? The seeming objectivity? The screenplay being based on the documentation? The reading out of the findings by the judge, his assessment of the witnesses, the probabilities for the young man to have had the bombs in his pocket, the behaviour of the British soldiers?

9. An important re-creation of a significant day in Northern Irish history? The fact that there was still not a resolution of what had happened, of justice being done until the beginning of the 21st century?