Neil Arun didn’t want to miss a rare but risky opportunity to embed with an Iraqi police unit, hunting members of al Qaeda. But his employers -- responsible for Neil’s security -- weren’t happy. This film by Richard Pendry nvestigates how a frontline journalist balances risk and reward.
For the best piece of writing on England's shambolic performance against Germany in South Africa, it stands to reason that we must turn to an Irishman writing in an American magazine. Roddy Doyle has form writing a good game; his description in The Van (I think, though I prepare to stand corrected) of Ireland's 1990 World Cup penalty shoot-out is terrific. And his piece for the New Yorker shows he's lost none of that lightness of touch. He starts the piece wanting to back England to demonstrate his country's post-post-Colonial state. He ends it "cheering on every German attack and sneering at everything English." A friend texts him. “'Did u see the disallowed goal?' I texted back: 'Yeah. A disgrace.' Then I added, 'Brilliant.'"
Excellent. The sentiment is so beautifully cosseted in warmth, style and humour that one can almost forget the centuries of provocation that created it. The narcissism of small difference is rarely so well expressed. And I'm pretty sure it was The Van. It certainly wasn't The Commitments.
It was The Van, a brilliant film I must have watched a dozen times growing up.