Friendship's Death
Entry updated 23 December 2023. Tagged: Film.
UK film (1987). British Film Institute / Channel 4 / Modelmark. Written and directed by Peter Wollen (1938-2019), based on his story "Friendship's Death" (Spring 1976 Bananas). Cast includes Patrick Bauchau, Ruby Baker, Bill Paterson and Tilda Swinton. 78 minutes. Colour.
In 1970, a female Android named Friendship (Swinton) is sent on a peace mission to Earth, but misses her intended target of MIT, and lands in Jordan during the Black September conflict. There she makes contact with British war correspondent Sullivan (Paterson). During their debates about the situation in the Middle East, and the nature of humanity vs alien Machine in general, she comes to realize that her mission would have been doomed to failure. Seeing the Palestinians as kindred outsiders, she leaves to join their struggle. Unsurprisingly, the journalist sees his cynicism begin to soften too.
This was the only solo feature by renowned film theorist Peter Wollen, after several highly regarded films made in collaboration with Laura Mulvey. Clearly shot on a very low budget, it is essentially a two-hander, taking place in only three rooms with some footage taken from news coverage of the Middle East conflict, and occasionally resembling a stage play (see Theatre). It would appear to have been shot in sequence, as the early scenes have some awkwardnesses which disappear as the film progresses. Wollen is clearly much less concerned with sophisticated sf ideas than with using the Alien as a mirror to humanity, a well-worn trope which is given considerable freshness here. The conversations between the two are far from dry, and are often surprisingly funny, such as a running joke in which Friendship rebukes Paterson for hitting the keys on his typewriter too hard, seeing him as hurting a distant cousin. Swinton gives one of her most striking performances, subtly suggesting there is more humanity behind her passive features than in the actual humans in the film. [CWa]
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