Wollen's solo directorial debut (he previously codirected with Laura Mulvey) is a unique, deceptively simple science fiction film that revolves around the Palestinian situation in the 1970s. Although structured like a standard narrative this is more closely related to that neglected genre,
the "film essay." The film opens with documentary footage from 1970's "Black September" in Amman, Jordan. Gunfire is exchanged in the streets, and the city is reduced to rubble. An airport runway is enveloped in a mushroom cloud of thick, black smoke as PLO terrorists explode a jetliner. Against
this backdrop a woman, Swinton, is detained because she has arrived in the city without a passport. A PLO-leaning journalist, Paterson, pretends to know her, secures her release, and invites her back to his hotel room. There he learns she is an alien from the galaxy Procryon sent to Earth on a
peacekeeping mission.
An impressive, multi-layered film, FRIENDSHIP'S DEATH is perhaps more exciting to think about than it is to watch--a description that is not necessarily a negative one. Photographed on a single studio set with essentially only two characters, the film is unrelentingly talky, with its science
fictional-political-dramatic treatises overshadowing the visuals. It is in its ideas, though, that the film is most interesting. FRIENDSHIP'S DEATH explores a compendium of compelling issues, including the relationships between man and machine, and sign and meaning. All of these layers make for an
intriguing, challenging picture. leave a comment