Whatever the setting – slavery in “12 Years a Slave”, the London of 1960s-1980s West Indian immigrants in “Small Axe”, the Irish hunger strikes of “Shame” – McQueen is remembered for his dramatization of moments in history. Are drawn to extremes depending on how they test the morality of those in and around them in battle. Did they turn a blind eye? Did they put themselves at risk? Do we remember?

McQueen’s films ask questions – often uncomfortable ones. This is true in his non-fiction works as well. His 2023 short film “Grenfell” depicts the aftermath of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire. Last year’s “Occupied City” compared current street addresses in Amsterdam to events that took place at those exact locations during the Nazi occupation of World War II.

In that film, McQueen juxtaposes past and present, death and life, and some of the same collisions are found in the 1940s-set “Blitz,” which will be released in theaters on Friday and stream on Apple TV on Nov. 22 . It is told largely from the perspective of a 9-year-old boy, George, whose single mother, Rita, has made the tragic decision to send him to the countryside with thousands of other schoolchildren fleeing the Blitz.

One year into the war, the bombings are already intense, and hence the questionable nature of how some people are reacting to the omnipresent threat and loosening of order. The film begins with a massive fire, as firefighters struggle with an out-of-control hose, and a large number of people flee underground to escape the bombers above. Outside the station, the gates are closed and the nearby police are refusing to open them. This is an early indication that McQueen’s treatment of the war will be more complex and restrained than the average World War II drama.

The “Blitz” proper begins after Rita drops George off at the train station. The separation is bitter only because their bond is clearly very strong. After boarding the train, George gets a chance to escape and gets off the train. “Blitz” follows George’s journey in an attempt to get home.

It’s an oddly brief story – the film takes place over a day but feels like it’s a lifetime – which cuts awkwardly between George and Rita. “Blitz” feels caught between a traditional war drama and something more adventurous and investigative. It doesn’t coalesce like McQueen’s best work, but the frictions that drive “Blitz” make it a singular and sporadically moving experience.

A representative sequence occurs at the beginning of the film. George, who is black and obviously feeling some growing anxiety about leaving London, boards a passing train and finds that three young brothers are also staying there. After a tense moment, they find a cordial relationship together. Riding on top of the train, they seem almost carefree. But moments later, as they were fleeing from the authorities in the trainyard, one of the boys was killed in an instant by a moving train.

Throughout, “Blitz” toggles between moments of tenderness and violence, suggesting McQueen is not simply a part of wartime. After the trainyard moment, the film moves to a flashback of Rita and George’s otherwise unseen Grenadian immigrant father, Marcus. While walking home after a joyous night dancing at a jazz club, a man deliberately bumps into Marcus. In the ensuing quarrel Marcus was arrested and swiftly exiled afterward. In an instant, cruelty and racism can ruin a life as surely as a Nazi bomb from above.

The film follows George as he gets closer to home in Stepney Green in the East End. “The Blitz” is less concerned with aerial bombardment above than with the prejudices and injustices brewing on the ground. In the film’s most Dickens-esque sequence, George is taken in and held captive by a Fagin-like criminal, whose gang of thieves steals from the dead and robs freshly bombed flats. It features scary ghostly scenes, most of which are set in the Café de Paris. At one moment it’s a teeming, multiracial jazz club, at another – as captured in a wide, bizarre shot by Yorick Le Saux – it’s a bloody ruin.

There are moments of uplift, or at least temporary relief. There is a moment when Rita, who works in a munitions factory with Rosie the Riveter headscarf, sings for a BBC radio program from the factory floor. Once Rita discovers that George is lost, she feuds with an unsympathetic boss, argues with the people in charge of the evacuation, and attempts to find George with the help of a police officer leading to an ill-conceived plot.

However, we see again and again that it takes the conviction and courage of individuals to go against the tide of apathy. These include activist Mickey Davis, who gives a stirring speech at a shelter. And, most of all, it involves Ife, a Nigerian ARP warden, whom George finds outside a store advertising coffee and sugar from Africa with caricatures of black faces. A talented singer-songwriter, Clementine has a bright presence that adds warmth to an otherwise insensitive film. Ife fills George with pride and confidence in himself as a young black man. For his part, the young Heffernan showed no trouble making his film debut.

Ultimately, while there is war going on in “The Blitz,” it may not be its defining feature. In McQueen’s film London under siege is unjustly as threatened as German planes. For George, Rita and the others who retreated, resistance is not just wartime survival. It is a way of life.

The Apple Studios release “Blitz” is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for thematic elements including some racism, violence, some strong language, brief sexuality and smoking. Running time: 120 minutes. Three out of four stars.

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