Sands film gets Cannes premiere

Michael Fassbender previously starred in 300

A film based on the last six weeks in the life of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands has had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film, Hunger, portrays Sands' final days in the Maze Prison in May 1981, shortly after being elected an MP.

The screenplay was co-written by Irish playwright Enda Walsh, whose critically acclaimed plays include Disco Pigs.

The film is the first directed by Steve McQueen and is entered in the festival Un Certain Regard competition.

Sands is played by actor Michael Fassbender , 31, who featured as Stelios in the historical epic 300, a major box-office success last year.

The actor was born in Germany, but raised in Killarney.

He first came to fame in a Guinness commercial, as a man who swims the Atlantic to heal a rift with a friend in the US.