Eleven Days in May
The grim story of life in Gaza and of the killing of more than sixty Palestinian children in May of last year.
Michael Winterbottom's latest film is a joint collaboration with fellow director Mohammed Sawwaf and it finds them giving us a fully-fledged documentary. Its subject lies in the horrific killings that occurred in 2021 in Gaza between 10th May and 21st May, the latter date marking a ceasefire that ended what had been a daily bombardment by Israeli forces. In addition to injuries caused, around two hundred people died, but the central focus of Eleven Days in May is on the fact that at least sixty of those killed were children, some only a few months old.
The narration here is aptly spoken by Kate Winslet who avoids any attempt at dramatisation: this is a simple, day by day chronological listing of the deaths of people who in no sense whatever deserved to die. Despite its specific setting in time and place, the film is not politicised unless the viewer chooses to see it that way. For me it was a film using a specific situation in order to make a general statement about how the horrors of war affect ordinary people, civilians caught up in the situation. Given its release now, the film inevitably provokes thoughts of what is happening in Ukraine and there is no mistaking the commitment and deep sincerity of the filmmakers whose work here is first and foremost, as a final statement confirms, a commemoration of those who died.
Suffering of this kind has often led to photographers mounting exhibitions expressive of what they have seen and the splendid trailer for Eleven Days in May has an impact akin to that. In fact, it's a montage of faces, mostly those of the bereaved and often in close-up, and the images eloquently express the tragedy that has overtaken these people. I wish that I could feel that the film itself was equally effective. Sadly, I don't, since it seems to me that offering so much more of this material is counter-productive. Over 84 minutes what is virtually the same tragic story is told over and over again. Each time the film draws on interview footage as survivors speak direct to camera and that is blended with old home movies, photos that have been kept and actual shots of the dead and injured at the end of their lives. All of this has been done with the approval of the families concerned and I think it likely that for those participants remembering the dead in this way appearing in this film may well have been something of a therapeutic experience.
For the ordinary reviewer, however, I have to ask questions: how many viewers would want to pay to see a whole feature devoted to this theme and don't the repetitions in this piece weigh one down beyond the point that makes us appreciate the human tragedy of the situation? At the very start the size of the screen image grows from a small, central picture into one that takes over the whole screen (an adept symbol of the inescapable tide of war), but thereafter the film lacks any sense of development save for the enormity of the horrors continuing. In a gallery you choose how long you wish to stay and decide how much you can bear to take in if the subject matter is devastating. But here that is, in effect, decided for you. Others may have more fortitude than I in this instance and I hope so because Sawwaf and Winterbottom have put their hearts into this project.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring: Inhabitants of Gaza. Narrated by Kate Winslet.
Dir Mohammed Sawwaf and Michael Winterbottom, Pro Michael Winterbottom, Ben Pearce, Mohammed Sawwaf and Hashim Alaraf, Ph Salah Alhaw, Ed Michael Winterbottom and Otto Hills-Fletcher, Music Max Richter.
Revolution Films/Alef Multimedia-Revolution Films.
85 mins. UK. 2022. UK Rel: 6 May 2022. Cert. 18.
