A feature film shot in Northumberland probes the effect on family life of Britain’s dealings in Iraq. David Whetstone talks to director Ben Crowe.
WARS, even foreign wars, in the 21st Century are never very far away ... and that’s a point underlined in a debut feature film made by an up-and-coming director from the North East.
The war in Iraq is the catalyst for Verity’s Summer but it was shot in Northumberland for £30,000, which might not buy a buffet in Hollywood.
The film, which has attracted much interest among critics and festival programmers, is to get two special screenings in Newcastle next week when its director, Ben Crowe, will be present to answer questions.
Ben, who is 34 and from Whitley Bay, has been in The Journal before.
In May 2005 his short film, The Man Who Met Himself, was chosen to contest a top prize at the Cannes film festival.
It cost just £400. Ben wrote, produced, directed and shot it himself before editing it at home on his Apple Mac.
“This is amazing recognition for any film- maker but for a small independent team, it is a dream come true,” said Ben at the time.
Two months later, in less happy circumstances, Ben and film-making colleague James Brown – both ex-pupils of Whitley Bay High School – were interviewed as witnesses to the aftermath of the July 7 London Tube and bus bombings, carried out, its perpetrators made clear, in protest at Britain’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We were round the corner from Russell Square where the bus was,” Ben told a reporter.
“It was all cordoned off. The whole place looked like a film set.”
Fast forward eight years and Ben is even better acquainted with film sets and the wider repercussions of those overseas conflicts, having steered Verity’s Summer towards a UK-wide cinematic release.
Probing behind the headlines, the film explores the role of UK troops in Iraq and the impact on their families.
It is, suggests executive producer Christine Hartland, “an intense, slow-burn film by a debut director of considerable talents”.
And she adds: “It goes to the heart of what it means to be a family, to live in a world where the social and psychological impacts of war are all-pervasive.”
Ben says: “I was looking for a way to respond to events happening in our society, notably the invasion of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.
“I was keen to find a way of exploring that, particularly with regard to the people returning from overseas and the effect on their family life. It can be quite a traumatic experience. I wanted to explore the issues from within a family.
“There have been other films about returning soldiers but they’re often from working-class families. I wondered, is there a difference for people who are middle-class?”
Originally, says Ben, he had thought of distancing his story from current events by setting it in the 1950s end-of-empire days. In Kenya, as in Iraq today, questions were raised about the behaviour of some sections of the British Armed Forces.
“But a couple of years prior to making this film I was pitching documentaries to broadcasters and one of them was on returning soldiers from Iraq, so I talked to charities and organisations set up to help with things like combat stress.
“In many ways that gave me the first insight into the pressures people are under when they return.”
