25 Best British Films Of The Last Decade

18. Hunger

Steve McQueen's debut feature instantly put him on the map as a talent to watch. The visual artist-turned-filmmaker began his fruitful relationship with Michael Fassbender by casting the actor as Bobby Sands, the IRA volunteer who went on a hunger strike in an attempt to regain political status for Republican prisoners which was revoked by the British government 5 years earlier. Like McQueen's films that followed, Hunger is extremely uncompromising, refusing to turn away from the visceral toll on the human body that Sands' strike took, as well as the monotony of the prison life. Still, it's the acting that really hammers this one home: Fassbender clearly goes to a very dark, uncomfortable place for the film, and the stand-out scene has to be when a priest (played by Liam Cunningham) attempts to talk Sands out of his strike. The scene in question is a single, unbroken take which lasts an insane 17 minutes, unfolding like a play and serving as a testament to the two actors' enormous talents. Whatever your politics, this is searing, first-rate cinema.