The Five Demands

Short film released for U2 song (UTV)

Irish rockers U2 have released the video for their new single Every Breaking Wave as a 13 minute short film made by Belfast filmmaker Aoife McCardle.

The extended video – which was partly shot in the New Lodge area of Belfast – portrays an “across the barricades” love story of two Belfast teens in the 1980s.

Sean, a Catholic boy, falls in love with Protestant girl Sandra from the Shankill area of Belfast amid the backdrop of the Troubles.
McCardle’s video opens with Stiff Little Fingers’ Alternative Ulster, before it centres around the U2 tracks Every Breaking Wave and The Troubles, from their new album Songs of Innocence.

Speaking about the video, McCardle said: “I wanted to make a film about what it was like to be a teenager in the early ’80s in Northern Ireland. All the different pressures on you, the pressures of friendship, of falling in love for the first time, and all that in the face of huge troubles.

“Violence was inescapable on your doorstep. I remember very vividly what it was like to grow up when there were bombs going off and army everywhere so I did draw on a lot of memories.

“I hope people see that it’s a story. A story that’s based on real stories. It’s like capturing a time. And I hope people feel inspired by how resilient teenagers at that time were in Northern Ireland, and moved by their ability to live life in as full a way as possible, despite the circumstances.”

McCardle’s work has been branded as “extraordinary” by U2 guitarist The Edge.

He said: “The Aoife McArdle short film expands on the theme of Songs of Innocence which was largely rooted in our experience growing up in the early eighties in Dublin. Aoife chose west Belfast in the same period, as it was the neighborhood that was so formative to her.