Friendship’s Death is Peter Wollen‘s only movie and stars Tilda Swinton and Bill Paterson.

Plot:
Jordan, during Black September 1970: The British journalist Sullivan (Bill Paterson), supporter of the PLO, gets called to identify a young woman (Tilda Swinton) who was picked up without any identification whatsoever. He starts to talk to her and she tells him her name’s Friendship and that she’s an alien, who was supposed to go to MIT but unfortunately crashed in Jordan instead. Though hesitant at first, Sullivan starts to believe her. But Friendship loses more and more interest in her original mission and gets caught up in the events in Jordan instead.

Friendship’s Death is a complicated movie, most of all. The premise is simple enough, but Wollen uses it only as a starting point for philosophical and political discussion. I think it’s a movie I will have to rewatch at least once before I can give a final judgement, but it’s also a movie I’d want to rewatch, so I guess that’s alright.

[Unfortunately, there’s basically no pictures from this movie anywhere, at least as far as I can find, so you’ll have to do with this one.]

Tilda Swinton was excellent, as usual. As was Bill Paterson. There are basically no other actors (well, there are some, but most of the time it’s the two of them) and both of them carry the film with ease and grace.

I liked the idea and the story, though sometimes it got a little confusing, especially since I wasn’t so firm in my knowledge about Black September.

Friendship raises a lot of interesting points with her rather alien approach to things, though she still remains very human.

I’m having difficulties talking about this movie – it’s hard to sum up and I really have to watch it again. When I do, I promise to post more extensively. In the meantime, it’s a movie I’d recommend, but only to people who a) don’t mind weird and b) don’t mind (sometimes artsy) political discussion.