Monday 14 May 2018

another news story (d orban wallace)

Wallace’s film is a compelling account of the Summer of 2015, which follows the path of migrants as they head from Lesbos in Greece to Germany. The film shows two sides of the story: on the one hand the journey of the migrants themselves and on the other the press as they cover the story. In the process, the documentary is constantly questioning the framing through which the migrants’ stories are received by the public. The press is the filter through which we engage with the issue; Another News Story turns the table and questions their agenda. The laconic Bruno, a news editor, explains that this is just this week’s story: next week he might be at the Venice Film Festival. Through this miasma of news noise, the doc hones in on the story of a Syrian woman trying to get her family to Germany. Keeping up with her almost every step of the way, the film reveals the truth behind the news story: the middle-of-the-night dashes across borders; the endless waiting; the confrontations with police who are sometimes heartless and sometimes unexpectedly kind. Wallace also returns to revisit her in Germany, once her journey has been completed, but this is also after the attack after the attack on the Bataclan, when the mood in Europe is becoming and less and less sympathetic towards the immigrants’ plight. There’s no doubt that his film offers a more comprehensive recounting of the story, in contrast to the TV news, although even Wallace’s film cannot help but be a partial story. Documentary film or story-telling only allows us to go so far in our understanding; perhaps this is the point where fiction alone can begin to convey the ‘reality’ of the experience being lived by those millions who have been forced to flee their homes and embark on their own personal Odysseys. 

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