NORWEGIAN Erik Poppe knows exactly what reporting terrible events in the Middle East or heartbreaking conditions in Africa involves – he was a reporter before becoming a filmmaker.
Written by Harald Rosenløw Eeg, Poppe’s film pulls no punches creating realities to show risks. The opening sequence is a slow-paced almost poetic preparation of an event that springs a surprise even more horrific than its denouement, an event that happens so often that we might be forgiven for saying, “so what, another one; why do they do it?”
Photographer Rebecca (Juliette Binoche), more focussed on the existence of events than on their emotional content, has left her home and family in Ireland to work in a war zone (the sequence was filmed in Kabul.) Getting the shot to her editor in the US is her main concern. But that assignment over, she plans to put away her cameras and be a housewife and mother.
A Norwegian friend invites Rebecca to shoot a spread in a refugee camp in Kenya. Her teenaged daughter is desperate to accompany her. Her friend assures her there is no danger. Oh, yeah?
Poppe’s film is a gut-wrencher, delivering more profound impressions than three-second TV grabs, a message film as much about consequences of the Kenya incident for Rebecca’s family as about the events in the camp. It’s not a job for a wife and mother. Watching it reminded me about ABC reporter Sally Sara.
At Palace Electric
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