By Josh Horwood.
Directed by Greg Barker, 93 mins, Limited release from Friday 14th December.
This engaging documentary charts individual accounts from the Arab Spring of 2011. It picks up three separate stories: a father and son in Libya, two individuals in Syria and a family in Bahrain. Although it is a generic in style, home video footage coupled with talking head interviews, the film is an interesting and passionate portrayal of individual struggle against oppression. The filmmakers somewhat successfully attempt to portray the uprisings truthfully, using tweets and graphic home video content but when the interviewees’ stories finish, the focus is shifted elsewhere. I would have liked to have seen more coverage of the aftermath created by these uprisings. The film is well paced and the director, Barker, puts emphasis on the interviewees and their stories rather than his personality. The interviewees themselves are charismatic, thought-provoking and engaging and it is their opinions that you will remember from this film.
The film opens and is interspersed with title sequences with quotes from the usual suspects (Guevara, Lenin, Stalin, Luther-King Jr, Gandhi etc.) followed by sleekly edited newsreel footage. Whilst these are incredibly well designed (congratulations to design team at The Mill), they don’t add much to the narrative so feel a little pointless at times. It is also frustrating that the subtitles do not have a fixed position. Instead, they jump around the screen and this is incredibly distracting at times.
Aside from the criticisms raised above, the film is an illuminating 90 minutes, a heartfelt examination of peaceful protest and the struggle of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Recommended.
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