Steve McQueen on making WWII personal with ‘Blitz’: ‘It’s about us fighting ourselves’

“I’m not going to go down the easy path,” says director Steve McQueen. “We could have that,” the filmmaker says, sitting in a quiet room in London’s Soho Hotel during a long day of press ahead of BFI London Film Festival. But I know it’s interesting when you’re working in a way which is confrontational.” “War is bad enough, but through a child’s eyes you see the insanity of it in a greater way,” says McQueen. “I was interested in George and Rita and the people around them.” That’s also what attracted Ronan, 30, who, speaking from her home in London in September, says she didn’t “want to get involved in a World War II epic in the traditional sense.” “I was interested in the ordinary people who had to deal with the consequences of decisions being made by the people in charge,” says McQueen. “I’m interested in who are we — and what are we — within a landscape,” McQueen says of his instinct to occasionally step back.