The director illuminates his new World War II epic, focused on a boy’s fight to get back home amid the rubble of war-torn London.

Here, Josh Levine, author of The Secret History of the Blitz and a consultant on the film, talks to TIME about the hardships brought on by the Blitz and the scenes that are based on real people and incidents.

Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” is a triumph of production design; unfortunately, what it triumphs over is story. An epic re-creation of life in London during Hitler’s bombing campaign of 1940 and 1941, the film is the latest from the prodigiously talented director of “12 Years a Slave” (2013),

Seeing war through a child’s eyes is sobering. It helps us reconnect to a situation that’s ongoing and unfortunately very familiar."

The Oscar-winning filmmaker joins Q’s Tom Power to talk about his new film, and why the story is still relevant in 2024.

Steve McQueen's latest movie, Blitz, is far from his best work but it proves impressively moving in its most intimate segments.