Albert Solé and Raül Cuevas’ film ‘Return to Raqqa’, in which Marc Marginedas, the correspondent of the Prensa Ibérica group EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA, tells about the six months he spent as a prisoner by the Islamic State, follows other productions. He described similar events of the abduction of journalists by jihadist groups in a documentary or dramatized style. The heroes, approaches, and outcomes vary, but the underlying conflict is always the same. These are the five highlights of this dramatic subgenre.
“Journalist and jihadist: The murder of Daniel Pearl”
Ahmed Jamal and Ramesh Sharma, 2006. American-Israeli journalist Daniel Pearl, the South Asian bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped by an Islamic jihadist group in Karachi, Pakistan, on January 23, 2002. Within a month of her disappearance, her abductors released a 3-minute, 36-second video showing Pearl’s execution after several days of torture. Narrated by star CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour, this restrained HBO documentary delves into the dramatic episode and offers a revealing personality portrait of Ahmed Omar Sheikh, who is considered the mastermind and material perpetrator of the kidnapping.
‘An invincible heart’
Michael Winterbottom, 2007. Daniel Pearl’s wife, Mariane Pearl, who is also a journalist and was six months pregnant at the time of the tragic events, told the story of her husband’s abduction and death in a devastating book that prompted Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to read. embarks on a dramatized adaptation for the cinema. The actress portrayed the role of Mariane, while Pitt remained behind the camera this time as a producer. The direction fell to Englishman Michael Winterbottom, who fulfilled the order with solvency, betting on a pseudo-documentary tone, far from sensationalism, which reinforced the emotional impact of the story. (Apple TV, rental)
‘Living Theo’
David Schisgal, 2016. American writer and journalist Theo Padnos was kidnapped for one year and 10 months in Syria by an al-Qaeda cell who thought he was a CIA collaborator. During this long time in captivity, Padnos, real name Peter Theo Curtis, shared a cell with photographer Matt Schrier and renounced terror, torture, and escape attempts to maintain a kind of trust relationship with his captors. Two years after his release, the journalist returned to the Middle East to recreate the traumatic experience in a documentary and detail the physical and emotional consequences it had for him. Its gripping storyline is a hymn to endurance and empathy.
“Jim: The James Foley Story”
Brian Oakes, 2016. “This film shows footage of war recorded by journalists. It doesn’t show the execution of Jim.” With this warning opens a documentary that won an audience award at the Sundance festival and an Oscar nomination for best song. Jim was abducted by ISIS in Syria at the end of 2012 and beheaded on camera after nearly two years in captivity. American photojournalist James Foley, who was murdered, tells his story through interviews with family, friends, journalists, and other surviving hostages who, at one point, coincided with him in the cells of the same jihadist group.
“The abduction of Daniel Rye”
Niels Arden Oplev, 2018. One of the people who shared captivity with James Foley was Marc Marginedas. Another is Daniel Rye Ottosen, a Danish photographer and former gymnast who traveled to Syria in 2013 to cover refugees crossing the Turkish border and was abducted by the Islamic State shortly after arriving.
He was released after 13 months after paying a ransom of around two million euros. Author and journalist Puk Damsgard wrote the bestselling book ‘Do you see the bear, Daniel?’ which led to this dramatic but meticulous film adaptation by Niels Arden Oplev, one of the directors of ‘Vikings: Valhalla’. soap opera.’. (Available in the movie)
Source: Informacion
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