Five Minutes of Heaven

Set in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, in 1975, Five Minutes of Heaven centres on two men whose lives are bound together by a single act of violence. Teenage Ulster Volunteer Force member Alistair Little takes part in the killing of a young Catholic man, James Griffin, as a warning to the other side of the sectarian conflict. James's younger brother Joe witnesses the shooting, and the event shapes the decades that follow for both of them. Years later, with Alistair having served his sentence and the peace process under way, a television production brings the two together on camera in the hope of a reconciliation. Joe, however, has his own reasons for agreeing to the encounter.

Oliver Hirschbiegel directed the film from a screenplay by Guy Hibbert, with Eoin O'Callaghan and Stephen Wright producing. It followed Hirschbiegel's Downfall and The Invasion and preceded Diana and 13 Minutes. Liam Neeson plays the older Alistair, James Nesbitt plays the older Joe, and Anamaria Marinca appears as Vika. Mark Ryder portrays the young Alistair in the 1975 sequences.

Released in 2009 and running 89 minutes, the film is a crime drama and thriller made across Belgium, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. It holds a 6.5 rating on IMDb from around 14,000 votes and a 6.1 on TMDB from roughly 230 votes. A critics' rating of 6.8 from 45 reviews places it modestly above the audience scores on both sites.