June 30, 2011
Alan Clarke’s Elephant
Was astonished that I‘d not heard of this film before. From Wikipedia:
The film is set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The film’s title comes from Bernard MacLaverty’s description of the Troubles as “the elephant in our living room” — a reference to the collective denial of the underlying social problems of Northern Ireland. MacLaverty is a Northern Irish author and wrote the screenplay for “Elephant”. Produced by BBC Northern Ireland, it first screened on BBC2 in 1989.
The film, which contains very little dialogue, depicts eighteen murders and is partly based on actual events drawn from police reports at the time. It is shot in 16mm steadicam and features a series of tracking shots, a technique the director used regularly. The grainy 16mm film, together with the lack of dialogue, plot, narrative and music give the film a cold, observational documentary feel. Nothing is learnt about any of the gunmen or victims. Each of the murders are carried out calmly and casually, in one scene the gunman is seen to drive away slowly, even stopping to give way for traffic. The victims are shown for several seconds in a static shot of the body.
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Commenced watching. Thank you for posting.
That was seriously disturbing!