Queen and Country
27 years after his award-winning feature Hope and Glory, John Boorman takes on a journey through another part of his life with the charming Queen and Country.
London, 1952, at the beginning of the Korean War. Bill is 19 and forced to enlist for two years in the British Army. There he meets Percy, a troublemaker with whom he becomes best friends. Together, reflecting an entire generation, they begin to rebel against the flag saluting and question the presence of Britain in Korea. Their rebellion (alongside a newfound interest in girls) promises to get them in plenty of trouble.
It’s a rare and precious thing to have the opportunity to see a warm, funny and distracting movie of this quality – and to hear an audience laugh in unison is priceless. Queen and Country achieves these qualities and many more. Even if the cast are not equal in their performances, the group dynamic works and they become a troop, helping each other to get the best out of themselves.
The characters are searching for freedom, and their confinement to an army compound or their home island brings them close to claustrophobic breaking point – an idea nearly explained verbatim in a scene depicting a hilarious trial. The costumes and set design allow the viewer to immediately sense the atmosphere of the time, aided by beautiful lighting choices.
Queen and Country is an homage to the young man the director was, to the people he encountered in his life, and most of all to his eternal love of cinema.
Liloïe Cazorla
Queen and Country is released nationwide on 5th June 2015.
Watch the trailer for Queen and Country here:
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