Black 47 is a film about a difficult topic: The Irish Famine of 1845 to 1852. Stephen Rea, who stars in the film as Conneely, an Irishman working as a translator for the British, told Sean Rocks that this wasn't the first time a film about the famine came his way. But it was the first one to get made.
Stephen was approached in the 1990s to play a role in a film that never went into production.
Like Black 47, it was based on the Great Famine. Unlike Black 47, it was subject to an attempted rewrite by a Hollywood executive. Stephen remembers that the executive wanted to make the film "lighter". His agent had a quip for that suggestion.
"How are you going to lighten it. Feed them?"
Directed by Lance Daly and starring Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent and Sarah Greene, Black 47 takes a look at the Irish Famine "through the eyes of one man, intent on avenging the destruction of his family". And Rea's Conneely looks set to stop him.
"You're not sure who he is because he's playing both ends against the middle."
Listen back to the full discussion on Arena here.