In Shadow Dancer, the domestic is a metaphor for the political as an IRA volunteer betrays her family by turning MI5 informer, says Alan O’Riordan

Shadow Dancer ***

Sectarian violence in the North provides the makers of ‘Shadow Dancer’ with stories drawn from fact and fiction to recreate these dark decades of murder, reprisals and political meddling.

The winners of the Edinburgh International Film Festival awards were announced today as the 66th event drew to a close.

The Directors Guild of America Awards are the latest Hollywood film honours to go silent.

Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher and Michelle Williams’s role as Marilyn Monroe have put them head-to-head at this year’s Baftas.

Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough are to star in a new spy thriller set during the peace process in the North in the 1990s.

On August 7, 1974, high-wire performer Philippe Petit stunned the residents of lower Manhattan by seemingly walking on air between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Even if we know from this remarkable film that Petit survived – so far – we still find our nails chewed to the bone watching him.

A harrowing, though quite stunningly made, tale of a family in crisis … with a son with a dark past, a minister father who disowns him, a murder and more dark secrets.