Culture

Rialto Cinema - Moray Place
Monday 19 August 4:45pm, 8:30pm
Tuesday 20 August 8:30pm

Rating: 3.5/5

Which Way is the Front Line From Here? is a documentary that explores the life and work of world renowned war photographer Tim Hetherington. Through Hetherington’s footage, photography stills and interviews with his friends, family and the man himself, we are given an insight into the dangerous life of documenting war and the kind of person who would willingly make a job out of it.

Here’s the twist – it’s not actually about war. Well, not in the way that we have come to expect after films such as Saving Private Ryan and Apocalypse Now. There is very little focus on the political, economical and social causes of the conflict and the audience is never given an expository line of text stating when the wars started or how many lives have been lost.

For Hetherington, the point in documenting war is that it crystallises human emotion – it provokes true human nature to expose itself. Male human nature, to be precise. For me, this was a challenge: I longed to see a female perspective on the fighting, but most of the women interviewed spoke about Hetherington himself rather than what he was filming. However, I understand that this is simply the nature of the beast – the military units / rebel forces are male-dominated, and it is therefore natural that the film took this leaning, even if it could feel one-sided at times.

Hetherington himself is such a fascinating subject that the film’s focus on his personality is well warranted. The film didn’t ignore the fact that there is something extremely unusual about him choosing the life that he did, but his memory is treated with respect without too much sentimental mush. The other photographers’ attitude to the war is sometimes blasé and shocking (“I saw there was going to be an execution so I got a wide shot ready”), making Hetherington’s refusal to remain emotionally detached especially poignant.

This documentary is as much about humanity as it is about war, making it one to be enjoyed by even the most fragile arts students.