Db3652c9 5aff 4fac 9c5d 1a86f5afef8b

Peter Wollen

Friendship's Death

Director Peter Wollen Composer Barrington Pheloung Cast Tilda Swinton, Patrick Bauchau, Bill Paterson
Edition 1988
78' - 1987 - Science Fiction, Drama - Dialogue: English
Drawing on his own experiences as a journalist in the Middle East in 1970, Peter Wollen has fashioned a gentle science-fiction fantasy which will surprise those who still see him as an austerely politica! film theorist. Which is not to say that Friendship's Death is not a political film. Set in war-torn Amman, Jordan, during Black September 1970, it tells the story of Sullivan, a front-line news reporter, and his encounter with Friendship, a robot conceived by computers on the distant planet Procyon to simulate a human being and sent to Earth as a peace envoy. A malfunction lands her in Jordan, where she instinctively and intellectually finds herself identifying with the crushed Palestinians, with whom she shares the lack of an identity and a home. The best compliment one can pay Wollen is that this fragile conceit comes across as both credible and touching, while the film as a whole is entertaining and imaginative. (Clyde Jeavons)

Image gallery

Cc39228d a039 4a2d ae77 2d0f1405549f
Db3652c9 5aff 4fac 9c5d 1a86f5afef8b

Credits

Directors

Peter Wollen

Composers

Barrington Pheloung

Cast

Tilda Swinton, Patrick Bauchau, Bill Paterson

Scenario

Peter Wollen

Director of Photography

Witold Stok

Editors

Robert Hargreaves

Producers

Rebecca O'Brien

More info

Dialogue

English

Countries of production

United Kingdom

Year

1987