After exploring World War II with last year’s more experimental documentary Occupied City, Steve McQueen returns to the subject matter on an epic canvas with the war thriller Blitz. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Elliot Heffernan, and Harris Dickinson, the film will open the BFI London Film Festival and close New York Film Festival ahead of a November 1 theatrical release and November 22 Apple TV+ streaming debut. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Sir Steve McQueen’s Blitz follows the epic journey of George (Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. George, defiant and determined to return home to his mom and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.”
“The Blitz was the beginning of sexual liberation. The beginning of women’s liberation in the Blitz, not the ’60s,” McQueen tells Deadline. “It was definitely the Blitz, although it was evident in the 1930s too. The freedoms that we are living with now is directly from the Blitz. In a way, it’s not given credit. I mean, from horrendous circumstances comes something very beautiful.”
See the trailer below.
