Saoirse Ronan plays a distraught mother searching for her missing son in World War II East London in the trailer for Steve McQueen’s Blitz, which dropped on Thursday.
The drama follows George, a 9-year-old boy, played by Elliot Heffernan, in wartime London after his mother Rita (Ronan) sends him as an evacuee to safety in the English countryside. But defiant and determined to get back home on his own to his mother and grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, George encounters real danger as a distraught Rita tries to find her footloose son as he faces mounting peril.
“Why can’t you tell me, where’s my boy?” Rita pleads with London police officers at one point in the trailer. Meanwhile, George is seen scurrying for shelter alongside other Londoners in underground subway stations or bombed-out buildings as German Luftwaffe planes continue to bomb the British capital’s east end.
The Apple original film is set against the backdrop of the Germans’ infamous “Blitzkrieg” bombing campaign in London and is written and directed by McQueen.
The 12 Years a Slave director earlier said of his latest work when the film was unveiled to open the London Film Festival: “Blitz is a movie about Londoners. It honors the spirit of what and how Londoners endured during the blitz, but also explores the true representation of people in London, while at its core is the story of a working-class family desperate to be reunited during times of war.”
McQueen and his wife, the Dutch director Bianca Stigter, recently collaborated on Occupied City, a documentary that took a provocative look at Amsterdam also during the Second World War and under a Nazi occupation.
The ensemble cast for Blitz includes musician Paul Weller making his acting debut, Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Stephen Graham, Leigh Gill, Mica Ricketts, CJ Beckford, Alex Jennings, Joshua McGuire, Hayley Squires, Erin Kellyman and Sally Messham.
McQueen’s Lammas Park banner produced the movie alongside Working Title Films and New Regency. The producer credits are shared by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, McQueen, Anita Overland, Adam Somner, Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer. Anna Smith Tenser, Natalie Lehmann, Sheeraz Shah and Sarah-Jane Wright serve as executive producers.
Blitz also reunites McQueen with 12 Years a Slave production designer Adam Stockhausen for the look of bombed-out London, while other creative collaborators include composer Hans Zimmer, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, cinematographer Yorick Le Saux and makeup designer Naomi Donne.
The film, which is set to have its world premiere at the London Film Festival, will hit theaters on Nov. 1 and begin streaming on Apple TV+ on Nov. 22.