Alistair Little was 16 years old in Northern Ireland in 1975. Tensions between Unionist and Nationalists were at boiling point, not only in Belfast but also in many violently segregated small towns. Riots erupted every week in the street and petrol bombs caused the deaths of fathers, sons and brothers.
 
When Little, a Protestant, learned that Jim Griffin, a Catholic, had been stoking trouble, something, he believed, had to be done. He could no longer sit around and passively wait for matters to improve. With a group of friends, Alistair hotwired a stolen car, donned a ski mask and drove to 37 Hill Street, Griffin’s home. Through the living room window, he shot 19-year-old James Griffin. As he turned to leave, he locked eyes with a boy playing with a soccer ball on the pavement outside. He spared the boy's life.
 
The boy was Jim Griffin’s brother, Joe. The strain of Jim’s death on his mother was almost too much to bear. Left with only her grief, she accused her younger son of failing to save his brother’s life.
 
Alistair Little was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his crime. When he was released from prison, he made it his life’s work to address the violence in Ireland in a non-partisan way and encourage others to find peaceful solutions to century-old divisions. His public confession of his crime elevated his public stature and he became an international broker on the political stage, even becoming involved in reconciliation strategies in countries like South Africa and Bosnia.
 
Alistair Little and Joe Griffin are still alive today. The murder perpetrated by Little actually took place. Five Minutes of Heaven, a film by award-winning director Oliver Hirschbiegel (renowned for 2004's Downfall), picks up their story and imagines what might have taken place had Alistair (played by Liam Neeson) and Joe (played by James Nesbitt) been given the opportunity to meet and discuss what occurred that day in 1975 and how the repercussions of Jim’s death had forever altered their lives.
 
Here Hirschbiegel talks with us about the interest in films set in Northern Ireland of late, shares his thoughts on truth and reconciliation, and explains why he chose to meet Alistair Little in person only after he had completed the film.
 
CinemaSpy: The film is set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Coming out in the U.S. very shortly is 50 Dead Men Walking with Ben Kingsley. And we recently saw the North American release of Hunger by Steve McQueen. Why this apparent sudden interest in films about Northern Ireland? 

Oliver Hirschbiegel: The conflict is not solved, really. People are still coming to terms with it and the Northern Irish have showed us how to stop that cycle of violence which has gone on and on, for decades, generation after generation. There are so many atrocities happening in all parts of the world and so this film is a very good example of how to deal with what happens and what violence creates; what it does to the person who commits a crime and what it does to the victims.
 
CinemaSpy: You are German. Do you think that sometimes it takes an outsider like yourself to tell a politically charged story as opposed to someone from the country in which the events are set?

Oliver Hirschbiegel: I certainly grew up in a country that kept analyzing its past and admitted guilt and dealt with that. So, being German certainly helped. But what definitely also helped was being a neutral observer. I am neither Protestant nor Catholic, and I'm not Irish either. And not meeting those men helped too because as soon as you meet the real person, you tend to become emotionally involved, you tend to want to take sides and that could have been the worst thing that happened in the making of the film. You don't want to judge. You want to see both those people as human beings. The only way to do that is to stay neutral.
 
CinemaSpy: The film touches on the concept of truth and reconciliation committees, as used in South Africa after apartheid in the 1990s. What are your thoughts on these commissions and why do you think they are more successful in some countries than others?

Oliver Hirschbiegel: I am very skeptical, I must say. This film is not about reconciliation and it is not about forgiveness, really. It is not about happy endings. It is about the legacy of violence and about showing what violence does. It shows one possible way as to how you can draw the line and just move on. My common sense tells me that it's the only way to move on in a situation like that. The idea of reconciliation and the idea of forgiveness are beautiful but I don't think it works. I have never had anything terrible happen to me personally but I cannot imagine that I would be able to forgive the person that killed my child. I am an educated person and even I think and would not be able to [forgive]…I believe that a society fosters a spirit of reconciliation and that helps. But that is not the same as sitting in front of each other and confessing that you have done this terrible thing and the other [person] saying that he forgives you. No matter where you do it — in a village or in some courtroom — as soon as it becomes like a show, and if it is witnessed and written down, it involves something that makes it untrue.
 
CinemaSpy: But do you think that Germany could have benefited from something like a truth and reconciliation committee as opposed to the Nuremberg Trials?

Oliver Hirschbiegel: The crimes committed by the Germans were not just war crimes. In any war, parties commit war crimes. But [the extermination of Jewish people during the Second World War] was a crime against humanity. It was genocide. It was mass murder. And in the Nuremberg process, they didn't really name it that. Big mistake.
 
CinemaSpy: Were you worried about filming in Northern Ireland, given that the politics of the conflict between the IRA and the British is still raw and runs centuries deep?

Oliver Hirschbiegel: Not really. I was in the situation where I wanted to shoot in a certain area in Lurgan that has all of these murals and is considered a hardcore Protestant neighborhood, where a certain organization controls that neighborhood and where it is still kind of violence. I was told that would cause trouble and be dangerous. So we spoke to a UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) person and was told it would be fine. That was the only [disconcerting] moment. The overall sense that I got was that people just want to go on and they are fed up with decades of this senseless violence. They all wanted their lives back…But it works. Even now when certain stupid kids throw stones at the police, both sides go "Stop the crap! Stop it, for Christ’s sake!" It was beautiful to see a whole nation, Protestants and Catholics, standing by each other to confirm that this is not going to happen again.
 
CinemaSpy: Liam's character is in some ways detached and lonely. Did he follow that as a process in order to find the character? Did you have much time for rehearsal?

Oliver Hirschbiegel: I never really had a chance for extensive rehearsal. I don't really believe in rehearsals so much. I believe in creating a certain energy, a situation right on the spot, having spoken to the actors before and making it clear that we are all on the same page, and having discussed their questions. I did expect everybody to come prepared. Anyway, who am I? I am a German director and I have got like the two greatest modern Irish actors. Of course they come prepared! [laughs]
 
CinemaSpy: Did you ever meet Alistair Little?

Oliver Hirschbiegel: Yes but only afterwards. Liam never met him either. At the beginning he wanted to meet him and so I explained to him why I did not want him to meet either Alistair or Joe. Liam and Alistair look pretty similar in a way. It is very interesting. Alistair is smaller but the expression is close. There is something very friendly and haunting in those eyes, and Liam without even seeing a picture [of Alistair] got that. Alistair and Joe were involved in the turns that the story takes. [Screenwriter] Guy [Hibbert] wrote it but it was developed by going back and forth between Joe and Alistair and getting their thoughts. And that this how the second and third acts of the film came to life. They were pretty aware of what we were doing.  When I came on board and we were still working on the script, I would have my questions that I would send to them through a courier like Guy [Hibbert] or Steven Wright, one of the executives of BBC Northern Ireland. So in a way, I did meet them and, in a way, they did meet me but we never actually spoke until the film was finished. And then I showed them the film. But individually, of course.


Five Minutes of Heaven opens in limited release across the United States on Friday. To watch the trailer, click on the Trailer tab at the top of this article.