Four Days in July

Four Days in July is a 1984 television film by Mike Leigh. Set and filmed in Belfast, the film explores the Troubles by following the daily lives of two couples on either side of Northern Ireland's religious divide, both expecting their first children.Clements 167 The film's action unfolds over 10–13 July 1984; the two couples' children are both born on 12 July, the date of a Protestant celebration in Northern Ireland known as the Twelfth.Clements 167–68 Despite the politically charged setting, the film is uniquely uneventful, at least on the surface; Paul Clements writes that "It is hard to identify any full length work by Leigh in which less of consequence seems to happen."168 Broadcast only once, it was Leigh's last film for the BBC.Clements 176

Cast and crew The film stars Paula Hamilton and Charles Lawson as the Protestant couple, Lorraine and Billy, and Brid Brennan and Des McAleer as the Catholic couple, Collette and Eugene. Stephen Rea, Eileen Pollock, B.J. Hogg, and Shane Connaughton appear in secondary roles. The film's music was composed by Rachel Portman.

Reception In 2009 The Times Kevin Maher praised the film as a "must-see movie for anyone with a compassionate interest in an 800-year-old political sore."

Notes

References Clements, Paul. "Four Days in July (Mike Leigh)." British Television Drama in the 1980s. Comp. George W. Brandt. Cambridge University Press, 1993. 162–176.

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