Five Minutes of Heaven (2009)

Director:

Oliver Hirschbiegel

Writer:

Guy Hibbert (writer)

Release Date:

13 June 2009 (Bahrain)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

To face the future, they must face the past.

Plot:

The story of former UVF member Alistair Little. Twenty-five years after Little killed Joe Griffen's brother, the media arrange an auspicious meeting between the two. |

Plot Keywords:

Time In Title | Number In Title

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Liam Neeson	...	Alistair Little
James Nesbitt	...	Joe Griffen
Anamaria Marinca	...	Vika
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Juliet Crawford	...	Cathy
Niamh Cusack	...	Alistair's Mum
Mark David	...	Young Alistair (as Mark Davison)
Gerry Doherty	...	Joe's Dad
Richard Dormer	...	Michael
Paul Garret	...	Alistair's Dad
Katy Gleadhill	...	Fiona
Jonathan Harden	...	David
Pauline Hutton	...	Sharon
Andrea Irvine	...	Sarah
Gerard Jordan	...	Jim
Paul Kennedy	...	Sound recordist
Conor MacNeill	...	Dave
Mark Matthews	...	Martin - Cameraman at Loughfinn Centre
Mathew McElhinney	...	Stuart
Barry McEvoy	...	Joe's Chauffeur
Paula McFetridge	...	Joe's Mum
Diarmuid Noyes	...	Andy
Richard Orr	...	Alistair's Chauffeur
Lalor Roddy	...	LandLord

Also Known As:

5 lepta prin ton Paradeiso (Greece) [el]
Cennette bes dakika (Turkey: Turkish title) (festival title) [tr]
Cinco Minutos de Paz (Portugal) [pt]

Runtime:

USA:90 min (Sundance Film Festival)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Ireland:15A | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:14A (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Company:

Big Fish Films

Goofs:

Continuity: Little's photograph of Griffin's family changes between shots. In some scenes it has a border and in others it doesn't.

Quotes:

Alistair Little: For me to talk about the man I have become, you need to know about the man I was. I was fourteen when I joined the tartan gangs and I was fifteen when I joined the UVF. At that time, don't forget, there were riots on the streets every week; petrol bombs everyday...

Movie Connections:

References Jaws (1975)

Soundtrack:

A Glass of Champagne

The film that could help to end terrorism

Tonight I saw one of the best films I've seen in years. You might have to search for this one to find it, because it's probably not going to show up in your local multiplex, but if you can find it, you're in for a moving experience.

"Five Minutes Of Heaven" won the Directing award for Oliver Hirschbiegel and the World Cinema Screen writing Award for Guy Hibbert at the most recent Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. That, and the fact that Liam Neeson is in it, were the reasons I decided to watch it. I didn't even know what it was about.

It's about violence, and how violence shatters lives, and about how the shattering does not stop when the violence stops. Set in Northern Ireland, it is nothing more, nor less, than the meeting, 25 years later, between the man (Neeson) who in his youth murdered a Catholic for nothing more than being Catholic, and the murdered man's brother (portrayed so powerfully as to bring the audience I saw it with to tears more than once by James Nesbitt). As a child, he watched his brother murdered, and then was blamed by his own mother for killing him because he did nothing to stop it. He was nine.

Both men are shattered, 25 years later. One is seeking redemption and resolution by meeting the brother of the man he killed, and the other is seeking only revenge. I cannot spoil the film for anyone by saying more. All I can say is that this film would bring the Dalai Lama to tears, or Yasser Arafat. It's that powerful, and that well done.

This is the film that young people whose culture is pushing them into terrorism should be shown, before it's too late for them. And this is the film that those who feel no compassion for the terrorists should be shown, before it's too late for them, too.