• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Film

Berlin Film Festival – National Bird – Review

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada “It’s not science fiction”, says the US Air Force recruitment video. And thousands of young Americans are seduced by the idea of adventure and honour and join up. Like Heather, whose job it was to analyse drone imagery. All day long she’d watch Afghans go about their daily lives, trying […]

Leslie Byron Pitt by Leslie Byron Pitt
2016-02-15 07:00
in Film, Film Reviews, New Movies
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada

“It’s not science fiction”, says the US Air Force recruitment video. And thousands of young Americans are seduced by the idea of adventure and honour and join up. Like Heather, whose job it was to analyse drone imagery. All day long she’d watch Afghans go about their daily lives, trying to make out if they were civilians or targets. She’d watch them be blown to pieces, she’d watch civilians die, soldiers die. Even though she never left American soil and was never physically involved in combat, she suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. And she became one of the first insiders to publicly criticize the drone programme.

In National Bird, director Sonia Kennebeck shows the effects of the drone programme on its victims on both sides. She follows Heather and two other veterans, Daniel and Lisa, in their attempts to understand what they’ve been involved in. Lisa travels to Afghanistan and meets with families who have been victims of drone attacks. Mothers talk about the loss of their children, they talk about waving their babies in the air so the drone pilots can see them and won’t strike.

There is no narrator, but the protagonists are so informed, and their stories so compelling, that a commentary could not have added anything.

As we learn more and more details of what can, and is, going wrong in the drone war, it becomes apparent just how poorly managed this programme is. Drone pilots are promoted based on their number of kills, and the former imagery analysts assure us it is near impossible to tell with any certainty if the target had been who it was thought he was. And moreover, in most cases it is completely impossible to tell if a target would ever actually have posed a threat to the USA, which is still the legal ground on which all of these strikes are carried out.

Kennebeck herself turns the lens around and uses drones to a chilling effect. As well as the familiar aerial sights of Afghan compounds, desert roads, pick-up trucks and motorcycles, we also see American suburbs, parking lots and shopping centers from that aerial perspective. The familiar acquires an eerie quality, the view from straight above seems to remove life from the scenery. At the same time, we descend on the Afghan landscape and see it filled with normal life – as normal as life can be when thousands have lost limbs, everyone knows someone who died, and there is constant danger from the sky.

National Bird is not calling for an end to drones. The protagonists are realistic enough to know drones are not going to disappear from our lives. All the more important to understand the effects they are having. With meticulous research and sober storytelling, National Bird goes a long way towards that understanding.

Content Protection by DMCA.com

RelatedPosts

‘Finite’ film documents battle between climate activists and fossil fuel corporations

Film Review: Skinamarink

Film Review: EO

Film Review: Enys Men

Tags: FilmsMovies

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending

Elevenses: Exposing the Tories’ Deepfake Illegal Immigration Bill

Elevenses: Rishi’s Finest Hour

Elevenses: Fear and Loathing in the New Conservatives

More from TLE

At least four killed in horror smash on M5

Muslim religious leaders join Jewish group on Auschwitz visit to commemorate Holocaust

Brexit supporter who brought Eurostar services to halt jailed

#BorisHasFailedTheNation trends on Twitter after PM says we did “all we could”

UK Weather forecast, Wednesday 27 October 2021

London non-league guide: Hendon Football Club

UK-EU trade talks break up early with ‘significant differences’ remaining

Restaurant Review: Mele e Pere

Boris dubbed a f****** disgrace by Senior Conservative MP

Business Web Hosting without Busting the Bank

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.