Blitz starring Saoirse Ronan, Kathy Burke, Stephen Graham, Alex Jennings and Hayley Squires will open this year’s BFI London Film Festival.

Directed by Steve McQueen, the film follows George (Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside.

Defiant and determined to return home to Rita and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, George embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.

The film will have its world premiere as part of the festival at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday 9th October.