Saint Patrick's Day: 10 Movies That Represent 'Irishness' Best

4. Hunger (2008)

Like The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Steve McQueen's first feature film took home an esteemed honour at Cannes, the year of its release. Without a doubt, this film has to be recognised as that which put McQueen on the cinematic map. Before he was retelling the horrific story of Solomon Northup extensive struggle with slavery, he presented the audience with the tale of another historical figure, Bobby Sands. The famous Republican, leads fellow inmates of an Ulster prison in a relentless hunger strike in protest against the British government's political misdoings in 1976. Ten men died in the County Down, Maze Prison during that particular protest. Sands was included in the fatalities. Leading the cast in McQueen favourite, Michael Fassbender, whom prior to Hunger was probably most famous for his appearance in an iconic Guinness advert. As we all know, Fassbender has appeared in all three of McQueen's feature length films; stealing the show in all of them. It is here however, that he undergoes his greatest transformation. His physical alteration would be right up there with Christian Bale in The Machinist (2004) or Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club (2013).