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A Private War 15 rating

Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land, City of Ghosts) makes a striking dramatic debut with this pulse-racing biopic of The Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin (Rosamund Pike), killed in 2012 whilst reporting from Syria.

Biopic 2018 110 mins

Director: Matthew Heineman

CC

Overview

Sharp-minded Marie (a bewitching performance by Rosamund Pike) had a fearless approach to capturing human stories in war zones. Widely recognised by the eye patch she insouciantly sported, the result of a grenade attack during an interview with Tamil Tiger rebels, Marie was a striking figure in London culture circles in the 2000s – as much at home with a Martini at a party as she was confronting Muammar Gaddafi in an interview shortly before his death. Aided by resplendent, visceral cinematography by Robert Richardson (The Hateful Eight) and elegantly adapted by Arash Amel from Marie Brenner’s Vanity Fair article ‘Marie Colvin’s Private War’, Oscar-nominated Heineman has created a devastating portrait of a complex, brilliant woman. In every scene, Pike fiercely inhabits Colvin – occasionally arrogant, but also deeply compassionate and committed – who sacrificed her own safety and happiness to bear witness to the very human cost of armed conflict: ‘the people who have no voice’.

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