William Russell talks to John Boorman, who is stalking controversy with his latest Cannes prize-winning film

It is 30 years since John Boorman made his Hollywood debut with the stylish thriller, Point Blank. In the intervening years this prolific, hard-to-categorise director's work has ranged from Deliverance, the story of urban men faced with primitive forces in backwoods America, to Excalibur, an examination of the Arthurian legend.

His latest film, The General, is about Martin Cahill, the legendary Irish criminal murdered by the IRA in 1994. Cahill's crime was to cock a snook at it, to do what it had failed to do, and to defy authority in all its forms. He was a villain, but not a killer. He was a thorn in the side of the Irish police, and their collusion in his murder is implied in the film - the IRA was only able to get at its man after the police surveillance operation set up to keep him in check was withdrawn. A nod here, a wink there seems likely, otherwise there is no way the IRA could have killed him in broad daylight outside his home, or that, had the Garda been watching, it would have dared attempt it.

Despite the charismatic performance from Brendan Gleason as Cahill, Boorman denies glamorising the man. The film, based on a book by Paul Williams, is soundly anchored in fact, and Boorman sees it as a portrait of Ireland, a country he's lived in for 30 years and which is going through huge changes and upheavals. ''Cahill was motivated by a contempt for all institutions - the church and the civil service - because of his background. I have tried to humanise rather than romanticise him. Most people are drawn to him because he was a rebel, charismatic, full of guile and wit. He was neither psychotic, nor a gangster who enjoyed violence. He did what was necessary, never killed anyone.''

Boorman shot the film in black and white, believing colour could romanticise, and would have detracted from the story. ''It has caused me a lot of pain because there is a lot of resistance from distributors, and television does not like it,'' he says.

He had no contact with the Cahill family; Cahill's widow wished nothing to do with the project, and one son wrote asking not to feature in it, explaining that it was difficult to carry the Cahill name and make a life for himself.

John Voight, who also starred in Deliverance, gives a tremendous performance as the Irish police inspector who hunts Cahill down, mastering an impressive Irish accent for the role. Voight came into the frame because the Irish actors Boorman had in mind were not available. ''I wouldn't have made the film without him,'' he says. ''I was pressed by those we were trying to get money from to put a name in there, a star.''

He resisted having anyone else but Gleason as Cahill, but Voight was enough for the money men. He says Gleason's resemblance to Cahill is amazing.

Boorman, who wrote, directed, and produced the film, insists everything in it is factual, from the scenes of Cahill squatting in a tent as the authorities try to demolish his tenement to his crawling through a hole in his garden fence to evade the watching Garda. ''I left out many even more bizarre things because I didn't think an audience would swallow them,'' he says. ''He broke into the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and stole his files. He was absolutely outrageous.''

He reckons his film will prove even more controversial in Ireland because the role of the police is brought into question. Not that there is anything in it that has not been published, but a film brings things into prominence and that includes the implied collusion with the IRA which led to Cahill's murder. Not that the police withdrew surveillance at one fell swoop, the impression given in the film. It was far more gradual, which makes the realisation by the IRA that now it was safe to kill this man, who had effectively held them up to ridicule, all the

more intriguing.

The lawyers have been through the script, he says, and anyway - how do you defame a criminal?

n The General opens on Friday.