THE SOMNAMBULISTS

THE SOMNAMBULISTS Jobson’s writing is strong and powerful here. Added to the remarkable performances by his 15 ‘soldiers’ giving their testimonies in angry monologue, and you have a passion which cannot be denied – in fact, you can barely look away.  “Variety”

SUMMARY : 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.

Credit: Director Richard Jobson

Producers: Richard Jobson, Alan McKenna