Portraying someone in an upbeat celebratory biopic is one thing. Portraying someone in a not-entirely celebratory biopic that the someone in question would rather “fuck off” is something else entirely.

Which is why Éanna Hardwicke tried not to think of Toronto-bowing feature “ Saipan ,” in which he plays famously hot-headed ex-Manchester United soccer star Roy Keane in one of his most famously hot-headed moments, as a biopic at all.

“It’s about this event which sort of captures something about the Irish Zeitgeist at the time,” explains the actor about his first leading film role.

The event in question is a period of five days before the 2002 soccer World Cup in South Korea and Japan, when the Irish national team witnessed a bitter — and very public — falling out between captain Keane

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