Steve McQueen returns to the big screen with Blitz, a World War II drama about a mother's search to reunite with her missing son amid the devastation of 1940s London, but it was a scene about collective protest that found more powerful to film.
In one of the first scenes of the film, the Agency arrives at the munitions factory where Rita, played by Saoirse Ronan, works. She beautifully sings a song for a broadcast that boosts morale across the country, until the other workers seize the moment to ask the government to open the city's subway stations and provide shelter to its citizens.
“The proudest day I've ever had on set was that day with those 450 women and, I've never had that, the chemistry, the energy,” McQueen says. Total Film in our latest issue will be out on Thursday, October 10, featuring Gladiator 2 on the cover. “You could taste it.”
Blitz follows Rita's young son George (Elliott Heffernan) after he disappears on his journey to be evacuated from London to the countryside, and the mother and son's perilous journeys across the city in an attempt to reunite their family. The cast also includes Stephen Graham, Harris Dickinson and Paul Weller.
Check out our exclusive look at Ronan as Rita below.
Blitz opens in theaters on November 1 and follows on Apple TV Plus on November 22. And you can read more about it and much more in the final issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, October 10. .
Check out the covers below:
Subscribers have the exclusive textless cover on the way to them right now, and the issue will hit stores and digital newsstands on Thursday, October 10.