Barry Hines's palimpsestic city

This article examines a range of Barry Hines’s works set in Sheffield to argue for the city’s palimpsestic function, in relation to its spatial and temporal identity and broader symbolic role. Throughout, we will draw on sources including material from Hines’s archive, held at the University of Sheffield, and that of his long-term collaborator Ken Loach, from London’s BFI, to reveal the layered nature of the image of the city in three of his films. We conclude by arguing that the historical layering of Sheffield and its history as revealed by these three films is the result of careful and politicised artistry rather than documentary observation.