Belfast contains many memorable visuals—captured with Haris Zambarloukos's impressive black-and-white cinematography (with occasional color sequences highlighting moments of escape through film and television)—starting with an early scene where the young protagonist, Buddy (Jude Hill), wielding a wooden sword and a shield fashioned from a dumpster lid, faces off against a group of unionist protestors who are there to attack Catholic homes and businesses on his street. In a lesser movie, Buddy might naively believe that his homemade weapons could stand up to the rioters’ Molotov cocktails; instead, this moment signals the beginning of the end of his childhood innocence, a point reinforced later by a reading from chapter thirteen of the First Epistle to the Corinthians ("When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but then I became a man and left childish things behind”). The film's depictions of violence are especially impactful because Branagh uses them sparingly, and when he does, they’re presented in a realistic manner. If a car explodes in the street, you can be sure it won't just be CGI flames. However, some of the most remarkable images are those that create a sense of home life; many feature Judi Dench seemingly separate from what’s happening, as if observing from a distance. Branagh, who has worked with her on nearly a dozen projects, understands how she can simply by being present bring enough weight to ground a scene in reality (this isn't meant to suggest that Dench is just scenery; quite the opposite—her character provides the emotional core of the story). These images resonate because they illustrate what’s at stake: a precarious way of life expressed as, “We have known this street and all the streets around it all our lives. And every man, woman, and child that lives in every damn house, whether we like it or not. And I like it. And you say you have a little garden for the boys? But here, they can play wherever they want, because everyone knows them, everyone loves them, and everyone cares for them.” Showing how precious this way of life is makes the threat of violence even more effective at creating tension than the violence itself. Overall, Belfast feels like a series of moments from daily life as seen through the eyes of a young boy, and surprisingly it shares similarities with A Christmas Story; the script includes a gentle, uncomplicated sense of humor that works well against the heavier dramatic elements.

Source on TMDB