Friday 18 November 2011

At BAFTA last night to see a screening of As If I am Not Here followed by Q&A with director Juanita Wilson

Screening half full, which surprised me. The subject matter is harrowing (the film is a dramtisation of Slavenka Drakulic's novel set in a women's prison camp in Bosnia in 1992) but the film itself is both beautiful and terrible (in the original sense of the word), without a single duff choice in script, casting or direction.

It was good to be reminded that there is nothing so horrific in human experience that we can not look at it, if - and it is a big 'if@ - we are guided to the right vantage point.

Wilson's achievement is all the greater in that she was working in Macedonia, with Macedonian crew and extras and Serbian and Bosnian leads, with very little in the way of shared language.

As If I Am Not Here already has a slew of well-deserved awards, and will undoubtedly collect more in the months to come.

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