John Lynch, a fine actor who appears in several of our features, has a star turn as a gentle youth come of age in a culture of death. As poor Catholics in a mostly Protestant housing project, Cal and his father, a butcher in an abattoir, live in mortal fear as the Troubles round their bend. And having once been a driver for an IRA hit on an RUC officer, Cal would prefer to forget the incident, but his subconscious wills otherwise. He is hauntingly drawn to the policeman's widow, Marcella (Helen Mirren), and contrives to be a hired hand on her in-laws' land. Marcella is as trapped, first by marriage, then by widowhood, as Cal is by poverty, Provos, and Protestants. Their doomed tenderness amid the fires is beautifully sketched. Cal is reminiscent of the Eastern European films of embattled youth such as Ashes and Diamonds, and quietly devastating. (JB)