Five Minutes of Heaven is a British and Irish film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel from a script by Guy Hibbert. The film was premiered on 19 January 2009 at the 25th Sundance Film Festival[2] where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award for Oliver Hirschbiegel, and the World Cinema Screenwriting Award for Guy Hibbert.[3] It was broadcast on BBC Two on 5 April 2009, and also had an international theatrical release.
The first part reconstructs the historical killing of 19-year-old Jim Griffin by 17-year-old Alistair Little in 1975, and the second part depicts a fictional meeting between Little and Jim's brother Joe 33 years later.
In Lurgan, Northern Ireland, during 1975 and the Northern Irish Troubles, the Irish Republican Army are targeting British loyalists and the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force are exacting revenge on Catholics they claim are militant republicans. Alistair Little, 17, is the leader of a UVF cell, eager to let blood. He and his gang are given the go-ahead to kill a young Catholic man, James Griffin, as a reprisal and a warning to others. When they kill Griffin, his 8-year old little brother Joe Griffin watches in horror. Little is arrested and sentenced to prison for 12 years.
In Lurgan, Northern Ireland, during 1975 and the Northern Irish Troubles, the Irish Republican Army are targeting British loyalists and the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force are exacting revenge on Catholics they claim are militant republicans. Alistair Little, 17, is the leader of a UVF cell, eager to let blood. He and his gang are given the go-ahead to kill a young Catholic man, James Griffin, as a reprisal and a warning to others. When they kill Griffin, his 8-year old little brother Joe Griffin watches in horror. Little is arrested and sentenced to prison for 12 years.
The Troubles (Irish: Na Trioblóidí) is the common name for the ethno-nationalist[11][12][13][14] conflict in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict,[15][16][17][18][19] it is sometimes described as a "guerrilla war" or "low-level war".[20][21][22] The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Belfast "Good Friday" Agreement of 1998.[3][23][24][25][26] Although the Troubles mainly took place in Northern Ireland, violence spilled over at times into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England and mainland Europe.
The conflict was primarily political, but it also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension,[27] although it was not a religious conflict.[11][28] A key issue was the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Unionists/loyalists, who are mostly Protestants and consider themselves British, generally want Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom. Irish nationalists/republicans, who are mostly Catholics and consider themselves Irish, generally want it to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland. The conflict began amid a campaign to end discriminationagainst the Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government and police force in 1968.[29][30] The campaign was met with violence, eventually leading to the deployment of British troops and subsequent warfare.[31]
The main participants in the Troubles were republican paramilitaries such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA); loyalist paramilitaries such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA); British state security forces – the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC); and political activists and politicians. The security forces of the Republic of Ireland played a smaller role. More than 3,500 people were killed in the conflict, of whom 52% were civilians, 32% were members of the British security forces, and 16% were members of paramilitary groups.[6] There has been sporadic violence since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, including a campaign by anti-ceasefire republicans.[3][25][32]
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