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Locarno Interview: Jim Threapleton
Miranda reports from the Locarno Film Festival, delivering an interview with Jim Threapleton, director of the new Andy Serkis starring thriller Extraordinary Rendition. The film tells the story of a man abducted from the streets of London and transported via secret flights to an unknown country. Held in solitary confinement and cut off from the outside world, he is plunged into a lawless nightmare of detention without trial, interrogation and torture. Returned without explanation to the UK many months later, he is left to pick up the pieces of a shattered life in a world he no longer recognizes.
MP: So, Jim, in Extraordinary Rendition you have captured the harrowing conditions of one man who is falsely accused of terrorism and is subjected to the most brutal, horrific conditions – the victim of a faceless system that operates within the borders of legality. Can you explain why you wanted to shoot this film? JT I think the power and emotiveness of the subject speaks for itself, really. At the time I thought about doing this film there was increasing media awareness about Extraordinary Renditions – I believe I’m correcting in quoting that since September 2001 more than 1,000 individuals suspected of committing terrorist attacks have been transported by the CIA to countries which practice torture. It’s a human drama gathering momentum that I strongly felt due to the immediacy of the subject needed telling straight away. MP: The story is loosely based on the interrogation and personal experience of Syrian born Canadian computer whiz Maher Arrar who spent almost a year inside a Syrian cell isn’t it? JT: Well, that’s not wholly correct. Maher Arrar’s story came to our attention when we were researching material for the film. He was at the top of a very extensive pile of research on Extraordinary Renditions and was referred to ourselves by the human rights organization Amnesty International - he spoke at length with our lead actor Omar Berdouni about the dire physical and psychological torture he had undergone as it was important that Berdouni could relate to his character’s similar abduction and react appropriately. Having said that neither Arrar or any other particular case has provided a sole basis for this film – we analysed as much archival evidence as we could absorb, as we wanted to portray a more lateral, artistic portrait of one man’s emotional journey where we see him cauterised and held at the mercy of a system that defies logic. It’s as much inspired by the work of George Orwell and Frank Gaspar as anything else. MP: How did you cast Omar Berdouni in the principal role of Zaafir – an English professor from a Moroccan lineage? JT: I’d seen Omar in Paul Greengrass’s United ’93 movie and was impressed by the way he’d handled the role, which had also involved improvisation. I eventally got to meet him after the film and it was soon apparent in conversation that we shared the same passion and artistic sensibilities. I needed an actor who had exceptional focus, physical and mental control to handle the rigorous torture scenes and play a man whose existence is irrevocably altered and is left to pick up the shattered fragments of his old life in a so called civilised society that has tragically failed him. Omar seemed to possess the right qualities to achieve the kind of raw intensity I was after. MP: You’ve mentioned improvisation, I understand due to timing and financial constraints that the film was shot without a script and the story was developed organically from character. Is this because you intended on giving it a docu-drama treatment? JT: It was never my intention to create a docu-drama, I only ever wanted to devise fiction from fact and deliver a compelling story that is not only politically contentious but more significantly goes beyond the political debate and shows the emotional cost of a man sucked in and spat out by a process that was officially recognised and became legalised, a policy under the Clinton Administration in the 90’s. MP: So you went for improvised performance because it heightens our awareness of reality and lends an immediacy to the whole thing? JT: You’re right, but it was really down to a combination of factors. We were concerned that shooting on a shoe-string budget of under £100,000 shouldn’t let down the shoot in any way; a year or two in script development would have put us too far behind the current debate so it was improvisation from the word go really. But we were also after an honest interpretation and this method of filmmaking is well suited to the subject. MP: How easy was it shooting those intense torture scenes that really made you sit back in your seat and flinch in disbelief? Do you sometimes feel that the film went too far in its visceral treatment of advanced torture techniques or could it have gone further? JT: Well that’s an interesting point – the Locarno audience seemed O.K with the level of violence portrayed – in fact a few audience members even shouted up that it didn’t go far enough. A couple of interrogation scenes were tricky to do but you accept when you embark on something as intense as this, where there has to be a great deal of trust and commitment on the part of the actors, that the job requires a 100% more blood, sweat and tears to bring the importance of the subject home, to make it all the more real. MP: Are there any particular scenes where Berdouni couldn’t withstand the near real ‘mock torture’ rituals you had set up? JT: There’s this one water boarding sequence that was really controversial to do because of a core argument surrounding it in terms of acceptable interrogation techniques. The argument is: where do enhanced interrogation techniques such as water boarding, which incidentally is also employed by the US, spill over into full blown torture? It’s questions such as this that the film endeavors, hopefully, to set up in the mind of the viewer. MP: Did Berdouni do all his own scenes or did you get a stunt guy in to help out? JT: Picking up from what I’ve just said, I did get a stand-in for Omar in this particular scene, which was potentially hazardous as you are in effect setting up a drowning for the victim. This particular guy was also a seasoned surfer and was confident that submerging his head under water for a prolonged period of time wouldn’t be a problem – he sort of regarded it as being akin to a huge tidal wave going over his head. But in less than 10 seconds he was visibly distressed and actually asked for it to be stopped. So we had to find a way around that one, but I do believe it was necessary in order to replicate fully the harrowing conditions a captive would be subjected to. In doing so I don’t feel we’ve pushed the audience beyond the limits of effectiveness; the effect may be visceral but it’s not like it’s personifying the kind of glorified gore you get in movies like the Saw franchise, for example. MP: There’s kind of a unifying moment half way through where we see Zaafir cooped up in his cell and in an instance of solitude and contemplation he draws resolve through his faith and writes, “God is Power” on the wall. Can you explain how this scene came about? JT: Well, the character translates some Muslim prayers that he discovers written on the wall and this incites him to write, “God is Power. In doing this we wanted to show how fear and certainly in this case the threat of death forces us to retreat into our core values or beliefs. It’s a way of confronting what is happening to us in a moment of absolute crisis, of unprecedented terror – we turn inwardly to what is most reassuring to ourselves – whether religious or personal beliefs. MP: In the aftermath of the abduction, Zaafir tries unsuccessfully to return to normal life. His wife Eva offers him space, compassion, understanding at first but it’s not long before the tension in their marriage starts to show and they let loose at one another. Is Eva justified in saying that “this thing has happened to both of us”? It’s true he’s kept her constantly at arms length, has rejected counselling and pretty much everything else: is he simply misunderstood or his trauma beyond assistance? JT: I think her reaction to the situation following his ordeal falls within the wider context of things and is not necessarily up for discussion here. There’s quite considerable research carried out on post trauma victims of horrific acts such as this one that find reconnecting with everyday life impossible – even the simplest actions like going to the local convenience store or doing the dishes are beyond them. A way of describing it is they are confronted by an alien world in which they no longer fit and struggle to survive – they become imprisoned by their own paranoia, their own irrational fears. It’s not impossible that he can’t be rehabilitated, maybe he needs a little more time to adjust although obviously those around him are unchanged and that’s where the dramatic conflict lies. MP: So the second half of the film looks at post-traumatic distress syndrome and the debilitating toll it takes on Zaafir’s personal, professional and marital life? JT: Yeah, in a nutshell it examines how post-traumatic distress disorder leads to isolation and fuels aggressiveness in the victimised. MP: Can you tell me more about this aggressiveness, I guess it’s a build-up of fear, not knowing who you’ve become? JT: Well actually in his individual case it’s more to do with the fact that he doesn’t want to access any of the conventional healing devices like counselling – there’s a scene where he and Eva visit a doctor and the shrink asks him really superficial questions like was he physically injured - he just sees it as another failing in the system, another rejection of himself. His sole interest is exploring the legal route – can he bring charges against his interrogators - how will the law support him in the wake of his ordeal. Obviously there are no immediate answers, if any, no quick-fix remedy. But again it’s setting up the morality dilemma in the audience’s mind and I guess it’s a typical response to want revenge, to see justice meted out. MP: Going back to his relationship with Eva, I detected a frisson of tension between them early on in the film before he is transported overseas, where she makes an excuse not to partake in a celebratory meal at his folks place. Were you hinting here at an underlying racial tension between them or simply the ups and downs of a normal, mixed race marriage? JT: It wasn’t a conscious intention that this should occur, I think they are subjected to the same pressures that apply to any young couple in the 21st century, not especially racial or religious pressures. What I was trying more to put across is the very mundane, ordinariness of their existence before disaster hits, setting the scene for differences to arise later on where he retreats further into his fundamental self and ostracizes himself from Eva. There’s a division not there at first that eventually takes hold when all attempts at regaining reality, a return to the norm have miserably failed and cracks in the relationship inevitably appear. It’s the vice of tension, an insufferable pressure that finally gives way to an explosion. MP: In the quieter, more reflective days post events there’s this all-pervading feeling of acute hopelessness, of isolation and despondency. Were you implying that someone in this position is beyond recovery; the film doesn’t really examine coping strategies or a means of recuperation does it? JT: As I said earlier, his emotional journey doesn’t exhaust the possibility of remedy but I think it’s more concerned with how his actions are driven by anger, hatred and resentment over his senseless treatment in the latter parts of the film. Inevitably this brings him to a turning point; he’s forced to confront a fork in the road and re-evaluate himself. His life is inexplicably altered beyond belief, he can’t recapture the past but can he strike out and start anew? It’s an open-ended question we’ll leave down to the individual to decide, or not, as the case may be; anyway its secondary to the main debate, which portrays a man in rapid meltdown mode, cauterised by a process that defies all logic and reasoning. MP: Extraordinary Rendition is your first feature on a four-picture slate, I believe your next project is to be set in the Scottish Highlands, can you reveal more? JT: My next film is going to be called Exposure and we’re due to start shooting in October. All I can say at this stage is that it’s about a group of men who go off an ill-fated journey into the wilds of Scotland. It’s going to be much more commercial than this movie and will have a fully developed script - it’s kind of in a similar vein to “Straw Dogs” and “Deliverance”. MP: Is there an emerging theme in your work? It sounds like it may wind up another movie where man is propelled into battling forces beyond his control – here it’s political next up it’s nature’s own elements? JT: I guess I kind of agree with that, I don’t want to let too much out at this stage but it does have that element of man battling forces beyond his control - it’s sneaky of you but nice you asked. But I would say it’s probably more a take on man versus man although the environment does obviously play a part. I seem to be attracted to stories that have a dark soul and how individuals react when taken out of their ordinary environment and are challenged in some extraordinary way. For more information on Extraordinary Rendition, visit the film's official site here.
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