For a movie about one man who goes up against the Irish Republican Army, it is ironic that director Kari Skogland received so much creative input and protection from former IRA volunteers as she shot Fifty Dead Men Walking on the streets of Belfast.

‘I had many secret meetings in dark places,’ Skogland told a TIFF press conference in advance of her IRA drama’s Wednesday night world premiere at Roy Thomson Hall.

‘We got to know certain members of the IRA. I met some of their people,’ said rising British actor Jim Sturgess, who plays a British spy.

‘There was a lot of drinking. Yea, basically we got drunk. They’re such great storytellers,’ Sturgess said of pre-shoot efforts to learn how the IRA operated in Belfast.

The IRA protection was required as it took Skogland and her producers two years of behind-the-scenes negotiation to secure entry into politically sensitive Belfast, where much of Northern Ireland’s Troubles played out.

The IRA biopic and Canada/U.K. copro tells the story of Martin McGartland, who infiltrated the terrorist organization to save lives by passing information to the British forces.

Canadian actor Kevin Zegers said he likely spent the most time with IRA instructors, as he plays a Republican volunteer. ‘They [former IRA members] pumped me as much as they could,’ he recalls.

The result was a movie shoot that left Zegers emotionally and physically spent upon its completion.

‘I didn’t work for seven months. It sort of knocked me on my ass,’ he said of his star turn in Skogland’s drama.

American actress Rose McGowan, whose father is Irish, insisted that playing a senior IRA operative in Fifty Dead Men Walking left her entirely in sympathy with the Republican cause.

‘My heart just broke for the cause,’ she said, before adding, ‘Violence is not to be played out daily and provide an answer to problems, but I understand it.’

But despite her movie’s embrace from former IRA volunteers, Skogland insisted she took a uniquely ‘Canadian’ perspective by attempting to portray both sides of the dispute, however divided and impassioned, with empathy and respect.

The film’s arrival at TIFF was, at first. overshadowed by the threat of legal action by McGartland. A settlement was reached earlier this week, clearing the way for the premiere and possible sales.

Despite that settlement, McGartland told Playback Daily that he’s disappointed that a movie about one man who stands up to the IRA was made with Skogland hiding behind IRA protection.

‘I would never have allowed her [Skogland] near my book, let alone my story, had I known she was dealing with people who are trying to kill me,’ said McGartland, who remains in hiding from IRA retribution, in a separate interview.