A screening was given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London on 23 March 2009. It received its Irish premiere at the 2009 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival on 21 February 2009. It won in the World Cinema Directed Award: Dramatic, and World Cinema Screenwriting Award categories. This was also the first time that two of Northern Ireland's top actors, Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt, had starred in a film together.įive Minutes of Heaven premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2009. Nesbitt met Griffin before filming began but Neeson decided to wait until after it had concluded before meeting Little he said "I didn't want to see him before because I didn't want to be reminded of the physical differences between us and I didn't want to get that cluttered up in my head."
įilming took place on location in Belfast, Dundonald, Lurgan, Glenarm and Newtownards for four weeks from May to June 2008. To get more money for the film, independent production company Big Fish Films brought in other financial backers, including Northern Ireland Screen, and the film was eventually commissioned by Controller of BBC Two Roly Keating, and BBC Controller of Fiction Jane Tranter. BBC Four abandoned the project when they could not provide a bigger budget. Paula McFetridge as Joe's Mum (gene Griffin )įive Minutes of Heaven was originally commissioned by BBC Four, as Hibbert did not want television executives to interfere with the script.He calls Little and tells him, "We're finished." Little appears happy and befuddled, not quite sure what to do next. Soon after, Griffin attends a therapy group and tells them, crying, that he wants to be a good father for his daughters. Griffin very shakily lights up a cigarette as Little pulls himself from the wall he was sitting against and limps down the road. He tells Griffin to "get rid of me", to tell his family that he has killed Little and to live his life for them, not for vengeance. He explains why he killed Griffin's brother. Little tells Griffin that he is leaving for Belfast. In the struggle, they fall through a second story window. At the meeting, Griffin, full of hate and wanting vengeance, attacks Little from behind and attempts to stab him. As Griffin reaches for the knife before the meeting, his wife tries to stop him, but he pushes her to the floor. Griffin asks Little to meet him at Griffin's childhood home, now abandoned and boarded up, where Little murdered his brother.
Little offers to meet Griffin, and Griffin accepts. When the producers try to calm him, he leaves, and the two men do not meet. However, just before he is to go on camera, he becomes extremely agitated and demands that the cameras be removed. He is carrying a knife and intends to murder his brother's killer during the meeting. Little has served his sentence and peace has been agreed to in Northern Ireland, but Joe Griffin is not coming on the programme for a handshake. In 2008-thirty-three years after the murder and nineteen years after Little is released from prison-Little and Joe Griffin have been set up to meet on camera by a reconciliation project. Little is arrested and sentenced to prison for 12 years. When they kill Griffin, his 8-year old little brother, Joe watches in horror. He and his gang are given the go-ahead to kill a young Catholic man, James Griffin, as a reprisal and a warning to others. Alistair Little, 17, is the leader of a UVF cell, eager to let blood.
In Lurgan, Northern Ireland, during 1975 and the Northern Irish Troubles, the Irish Republican Army are targeting loyalists in turn, the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force are exacting revenge on Catholics they claim are militant republicans.
The first part reconstructs the historical killing of 19-year-old Jim Griffin by 17-year-old Alistair Little in 1975, and the second part depicts a fictional meeting between Little and Griffin's brother Joe 33 years later. As a television film it was broadcast on BBC Two on 5 April 2009, and also had an international feature film release. The film was premiered on 19 January 2009 at the 25th Sundance Film Festival where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award for Hirschbiegel, and the World Cinema Screenwriting Award for Hibbert. Five Minutes of Heaven is a 2009 Irish film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel from a script by Guy Hibbert.