Over eight decades later and filmmakers are still finding innovative ways to unearth different perspectives of World War II. This time, Oscar winning director Steve McQueen tackles the harrowing subject through the eyes of a young child. “[The narrative] makes us refocus our gaze,” McQueen said at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles on Saturday speaking about the nuance of adults losing their childlike curiosity. “I always think of when my daughter was about two years old, and it was autumn, and she showed me a leaf. [The innocence of the gesture] refocuses your gaze on what’s right. At what point did we start to compromise? At what point did we stop listening? At what point did we stop seeing?”
Written and directed by McQueen, Apple Original Film’s Blitz follows the journey of George (Elliot Hefferman), 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 in East London, embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while his distraught mother searches for her missing son.
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In centering the story around a young boy, McQueen continued, “I wanted to do this in a way in which we could re-see things again, refocus so we can understand all the things [about war] that we’ve become numb to. When I saw this photograph of this child, during research, who was going to be evacuated, I thought seeing it through his eyes could help us revisit the story of the second World War. It’s been told and told and told, but through a child’s eyes, I thought it could be much more powerfully told.”
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To capture wartime customs and mannerisms, Ronan had to work with a dialect coach to enliven the now dwindling East London accent, also known as Cockney. “I feel like every actor who’s not from London can very easily slip into that accent,” the Irish actor said. “But I realized very quickly from working with the dialect coach that there was this vintage sound that we don’t actually have anymore. That was a really great gateway into the character actually, because what I found really fascinating about the way the working classes spoke, but they also had this effectiveness to their sound because they wanted to appear to be more put together and proper. The women [during that time] always put an effort into their appearance no matter what they were going through in their day to day. So it was just a really helpful tool I had throughout the whole shoot.”
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Check back Monday for the panel video.
The presenting sponsor for this year’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles is United for Business. Sponsors are Eyeptizer Eyewear, Final Draft + ScreenCraft, and partners are Four Seasons Maui, 11 Ravens and Robina Benson Design House.
