A NEW film about the mass escape of IRA inmates from the Maze prison in 1983 will not offer a "black and white" version of events, one of its stars has said.
Maze is due to be released in cinemas this summer, recounting the story of the escape of 38 republicans, including Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly and the party's northern chairman, Bobby Storey.
After overpowering guards with smuggled handguns, the prisoners used a food lorry to get to the outer gate, where fighting broke out with warders.
James Ferris (43) suffered a massive heart attack and died after being stabbed with a chisel during the melee on September 25 1983, in what was the biggest escape of prisoners in British and Irish penal history.
Mr Ferris, who was married with two children, had been a prison officer for eight years.
Twenty other officers were also injured, including two who survived being shot.
Maze is produced by Brendan Byrne, who also produced Bobby Sands: 66 Days, and former hunger striker Laurence McKeown was used as an adviser on set.
In an interview with The Irish News today, Belfast actor Martin McCann, who plays the role of a republican prisoner named Oscar, said it deals with the aftermath of the hunger strikes as much as the escape.
"The good thing about the script of Maze is it's not a black and white script. That reflects life, as sometimes the truth lies in the greyer areas," he said.
"It doesn't paint one side as heroes and one side as villains, it's about what these men emotionally and mentally went through.
"It's more along the lines of Hunger (about the 1981 hunger strikes), taking a more artistic look at things. It wasn't really about the events that took place, it more focused on the individuals in the circumstances."
The 33-year-old added: "The Maze tries to let you make up your own mind as to who was right and who was wrong. I think by the end of the film its done its job.
"There was a lot of right things and a lot of wrong things going on at the same time."
Of the 38 prisoners who escaped the prison, around half were recaptured within days while the remainder reached the Republic and the US.
Adrian Smith, chairman of the Prison Officers' Association, said last night he had not seen the film but would be concerned about the impact on those affected by the break-out.
"I am sure that it will be rubbing salt into the wounds for the families and affect the staff who knew James Ferris and worked with him," he said.
"However, I have not seen it and therefore it is difficult to say; it would all depend on the way it has been presented."
