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Feature in focus
TALES FROM THE WOODS
How a dream sparked the shocking storyline for Straightheads
T hose moments of transition as societies lurch from a defunct order into some-
thing new, and the chaos and violence that accompa- nies the change, have been a recurring motif in the
acclaimed work of British writer-direc- tor Dan Reed.
His documentaries in South Africa, Bosnia and Russia in the mid- 90s, Kosovo and then Russia again in 2002 for his BAFTA-nominated Terror In Moscow, about the bloody hijacking of a Moscow musical theatre by Chechen separatists, have all returned to the theme.
Reed also experimented with docu-drama in Shooters, featuring a cast drawn entirely from the Liverpool underworld. It explored, from a gang member’s perspective, the manner in which gun crime arrived in our cities, and followed an unsuccessful attempt to make a documentary about the rise of a group of young Russian mobsters.
This, in turn, culminated in the disappearance of all his footage, the assassination of the gang leaders and Reed’s expulsion from Russia.
Straightheads, Reed’s first feature, was partly inspired by intense fears and anxieties accumulated during a decade of documentary work on violence, but also, he said, by a short but very vivid dream which followed his witnessing of an attempted rape in 2001.
Filmed less exotically than much of his past work, in and around the West Midlands’ Wyre Forest, Straightheads, explained Reed, was “in many ways just a continuation” of his earlier subject matter.
“It’s a fable, or a cautionary tale, about violent revenge and the prob- lematic nature of violence and its uses. But I use a very different method of storytelling, this time not involving
documentary observation or non- actors improvising, but instead profes- sional actors and a tightly constructed script,” he added.
Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer co-star (with Ralph Brown, Anthony Calf and Steven Robertson) as a party-going couple whose momen- tary distraction after a close encounter of the very passionate kind leads on to shocking and provocative consequences.
Straightheads began life in 1999 as a treatment for the BFI Production Fund and Film Four Lab. With its release last month, it will, sighed Reed, have taken more than seven years “to bring this story to the screen’”.
According to one of the produc- ers, Damian Jones (The History Boys, Alpha Male, Kidulthood): “It was benefi- cial that Dan had also written the screenplay. His previous work had been in a similar vein and so we knew he could handle narrative well.
“As he’d nailed the story on the page, it was a question of surrounding him with experienced people like Chris Seager BSC and production designer Simon Bowles.
“Thematically, this is Straw Dogs territory which caused quite a stir in its day. We also hope to – but not,” he added, “in a gratuitous way.”
Sight & Sound was especially impressed, noting: “Reed creates a seductive, chilling atmosphere with the help of Chris Seager’s confident cine- matography using both surveillance footage and character POVs to build on the theme of voyeurism.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Straightheads, currently on general release in the UK, was originated on 16mm Fujicolor Eterna 500T 8673 and Eterna 250D 8663
Photo main: Straightheads star Gillian Anderson, right, with Danny Dyer and on location; far right: DP Chris Seager and Writer-Director Dan Reed
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