Belfast: Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe on Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical film

Jamie Dornan’s new movie is earning plaudits all over the place. But he couldn’t share it with the one person it would’ve meant the world to.

Jamie Dornan’s heritage is so deeply rooted in Belfast, it wasn’t interesting enough for TV.

“They did research on me for one of those Who Do You Think You Are programs, and it was so boring because everyone was from Belfast, there was no real point in putting it up on the screen,” Dornan told news.com.au.

“I am Belfast through and through, so there’s so much of my own understanding of what that means, who those people are, what they’ve been through, what they represent and how they use humour and resilience.”

Dornan, along with Caitriona Balfe, are the main characters in Belfast, actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical movie of a young boy growing up in his hometown at the start of the Troubles, a nationalist, sectarian conflict waged between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

Branagh drew from his own experiences and memories to craft a loving portrait of a working-class family struggling to contend with the chaos around them, while grappling with the concept of home and belonging.

Jamie Dornan describes himself as ‘Belfast through and through’. Picture: Rob Youngson/Focus Features

Dornan and Balfe portray, essentially, Branagh’s parents while the rest of the cast include Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds and newcomer Jude Hill.

For Dornan (The Tourist, The Fall) the project is something he had not previously encountered, a different focus on a conflict that has spawned its share of onscreen depictions including Bloody Sunday and In the Name of the Father.

When he was first approached for Belfast, he said he was relieved.

“In a very fortunate way, I am sent a lot of stuff that’s set in that part of the world,” he said. I’ve been lucky so far, I’ve been able to play characters in Belfast quite a lot in my career and I hope I’ll continue to do so, given the opportunity.

“I also read a lot of stuff where I don’t love the angle or don’t think there’s necessary space to tell something, or that I feel regurgitates movies that have been made there in the past. But this was so refreshing, and I felt so relieved because nobody’s told this story.

“It’s the first time that we’ve seen people from Belfast depicted in a very grounded and human way where it is just a normal family that everybody in the world can relate to, who are thrust into this bloody awful situation and have to make big decisions on how they advance through it.

Kenneth Branagh wrote and directed Belfast. Picture: Rob Youngson/Focus Features

“The movie shows that working class Belfast isn’t all about picking a side or building up a tribe. They’re people just trying to live their lives in peace and it’s really important to show that, and that’s my understanding of the majority of people from Northern Ireland.

“I hope it’ll help change people’s perceptions of people from Belfast because I’ve seen the reactions. I’ve spent 20 years seeing people’s reactions to me saying I’m from Belfast and they’re not always positive.”

But the tribute to his hometown is a little bittersweet because Dornan’s father, Dr Jim Dornan, died in early 2021 from covid before the film was complete.

“It breaks me that he wasn’t able to see Belfast finished, but it gives me comfort that he knew I’d done it, and I’d done it with the likes of Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds. That will give me some sort of comfort.

“But he would’ve been proud like everyone else in Belfast seems to be proud.”

The spirit of Belfast talent is strong behind the scenes and in front of the camera, and Balfe, who grew up in Monaghan just south of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, working with them was “amazing”.

Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan. Picture: Rob Youngson/Focus Features

“Being around that many people from Belfast, they’re some of the funniest people you will ever meet in your life,” she said. “We had such a laugh.

“I grew up right on the border of Northern Ireland and southern Ireland. So even though I didn’t grow up in Belfast, I was in very close proximity to the Troubles my entire life.”

Balfe went through hours of news and documentary footage from the era, an experience she found heartbreaking.

“It brings back loads of memories of crossing the border, about bomb scares, about the things that I experienced as a child. It also brought home the tragedy of it all.

“I think when you’re growing up, it’s sort of just always there. You don’t really think about it in its bigger picture way. Looking back and seeing how tragic it was and how this small part of our island was held hostage and destroyed by this conflict for so long, it was really heartbreaking watching all of that stuff again.

“It definitely helped me maybe process some things. A lot of my memories that came flooding back, they were the things I’d completely forgotten about. Bringing things back up and remembering, it was cathartic in a lot of ways.”

Belfast is in cinemas now. Picture: Rob Youngson/Focus Features

While Balfe, best known for her role in Outlander, isn’t from Belfast, she related to Branagh’s film the moment she read the script, latching on to its story about home and leaving it behind, which she did in her late teens to pursue a modelling career.

“It had so much nostalgia for me about home, about having left home, the people that I know that are still at home.

“I left Ireland a year after the peace process, so it just all felt very personal and I could relate to it, even though it wasn’t my story.

“I think [Branagh] has spoken about [Belfast] being the last time that he felt really rooted to a community or place, and that’s been my experience as well. I left Monaghan at 17, I left Ireland at 18 and I’ve been more or less a nomad ever since, living in different places all over the world.

“That is a real privilege but there is an aspect of it that is it is more difficult now to put down roots anywhere and feel rooted to a place. There’s a little bit of a price you pay for that nomadic lifestyle.”

Branagh’s movie is one so embedded in a time and place, screening the film in Belfast for the first time, Dornan said he felt a palpable sense of love and appreciation in the room.

“You could feel it and touch it. It was tangible,” Dornan said.

“This is an important film for people from home, showing a different side of the people from that place, that’s very necessary. That seems to be making people happy, so I’m delighted with that.”

Belfast is in cinemas now

Originally published as Belfast: Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe on Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical film