The cast and crew of '71 took to the red-carpet this evening [Thursday 9th October] for it's Europeon Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. The film follows Jack O’Connell’s lead character, Gary Hook, who is deployed to Belfast, Northern Ireland to help control an emergency situation caused by IRA terrorism. Soon, Hook is separated from his group and forced to survive as a lone-wolf overnight in the hostile territory.

Our Editor-in-Chief, Charlie Green, who is covering the event got the chance to speak to the writer, director and lead star himself. Here is our interview round-up:

The story behind 71 really takes it along. Was there much research involved?

Screenwriter, Gregory Burke - There was a certain amount of research, I mean I've kind of had enough of an idea of the Northern Ireland conflict and the research was more about finding a time when Belfast was chaotic enough to allow the soldier to have that scene of not knowing what to do and not knowing where to go and not to know who his potential allies were in the local population and that's where the research came in.

Obviously in the early Seventies and all that period the city became very split with the bible and also the army probably got on top of it a bit. Different bases built in different parts of the city. A soldier who would have probably been in the regiment who've been there quite a few times, so all the guys in the regiment would know the area and would know what they're doing and would be able to tell you what, if something goes wrong, you go here and you go there, but at that point, the army had only just arrived there where they live.

That is reflected well in the film with Jack’s character, Gary. The fact he doesn’t know what to do during the entirety of the film.

Screenwriter, Gregory Burke - Yeah, and most regiments didn't really have an infrastructure in place so that they're passing on information to each other or anything like that, so people could get lost and could literally be out at sea and become lost and also. A part of it was we didn't want to make him Scottish, I mean obviously, because you have a kind of understanding of the sectarianism because we also had some of that there in society but in the case of an English soldier like that they don't really have that kind of understanding of the protestant and its dividing lines so there was also an element of that.

Your recent roles have been quite impressive, how do you feel about your growth as an actor?

Lead star, Jack O'Connell - Well, it was as intended, I feel humbled and I guess in that sense nothing extra ordinary. I've been working long enough to put myself where I am and to see it paying off is obviously humbling. But it's took ten years, ten long years sorting it out, so it doesn't feel fast track to me.

What drew you to doing this movie?

Lead star, Jack O'Connell - Just the honestly, the realm in which it's set and the fact that nobody has tried to re-create history or amend it for any form of artistic licence. It's hopefully a truthful picture and that's where Yann's work comes into play, because it requires a sensibility and sensitivity and not selling out and trying to put bums in seats we just wanted to tell the true tale.

I was looking at the possible inspirations for the film and it's got close similarities to Escape From New York, especially in terms with the politics. Was there particular things that you drew on?

Director, Yann Demange - Absolutely, I'm a huge John Carpenter fan, and when I first read it, it made me think of Carpenter - but also made me think of films like The Battle of Algiers, The Army of Shadows, you know that film - it's got the most amazing scene where people are discussing executing the collaborator it's about the French Resistance. There's so much complexities in that scene there's so much humanity.

'71 arrives in UK cinemas 10th October 2014. You can read our 5/5 review here.