Project Detail

The Somnambulists

Synopsis

Richard Jobson’s new film surrounds 15 testimonies from British
servicemen and women who were involved in the Iraq conflict in Basra. They have a ghostly presence as they talk about their experiences in a near documentary style, after each testimony the camera glides into the lives that might have been and the people they left behind.

Jobson says ‘Like many people I was angered by the Iraq war and like most people did nothing about it. This is my response to that apathy. In the film although it appears that the speakers are the ghostly presence, it is in fact we the audience who are the Somnambulists, it is we who were sleepwalking in the build-up to the war and its tragic aftermath.’

The story was heavily influenced by the work of photographer Joanna Kane whose exhibition 'The Somnambulists' at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery left Jobson deeply impressed by its haunting vision of the space between life and death.

Details

Year
2011
Type of film
Features
Running time
96 mins
Format
DSLR
Director
Richard Jobson
Producer
Alan Mckenna, Richard Jobson
Editor
Steve Sander
Screenwriter
Richard Jobson
Director of Photography
James Stoneley
Production Designer
Jude Hanly
Sound
Tim Stevens, Andrew Jones
Composer
Tim Stevens, Andrew Jones
Principal cast
Jack Monaghan, Michael Nardone, Jack O’Connell, Scott Arthur, Steven Robertson

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

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