‘Always ready to explode into violence!’ Representing the Cyprus Emergency and decolonization in The High Bright Sun (1965)

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the representation of Cyprus in post-imperial British popular culture with particular reference to the film The High Bright Sun (1965), a mainstream British production depicting the decline of British imperial authority during the ‘Cyprus Emergency’. The film is contextualized first in relation to contemporaneous cycles of British television dramas and novels representing Cyprus, and second in relation to ongoing political events as they intruded on the film’s production history. The article proceeds to examine the ways in which The High Bright Sun was marketed to audiences in Britain and its reception in the British press. It argues that while the marketing campaign attempted to detach the film from its immediate political context, British reviewers were eager to make unfavourable associations between events shown on-screen and the ongoing conflict in Cyprus.