SOME Mother's Son, Terry George's already controversial film drama based on the 1981 Maze hunger strikes has unexpectedly won a major film prize at the Edinburgh Festival.
The film, starring Helen Mirren and Fionnuala Flanagan as mothers of fictional imprisoned hunger strikers inspired by Bobby Sands' prison protest and eventual death, won the Granada Award for Best Gala Film at the 50th Drambuie Edinburgh Film Festival last night.
The award, funded by the Bernstein family trust, is chosen by audience vote. The public endorsement of George's feature, co scripted and produced by Jim, Sheridan, was the surprise of the two week festival.
None of the film makers was in Edinburgh to collect the award at the closing ceremony last night, and there has been a note of caution in the distributors' approach to the film which does not have a British release date, although it will be seen in Ireland in the autumn.
John Lynch plays Bobby Sands and Mirren and Flanagan deliver performances of considered passion as the mothers who become reluctant companions through the turmoil of the prison protests.