Press

Newsday.com
19 October 2006
By Gene Seymour
Source

War drama’s world premiere at Hamptons fest

It may be sleeker than ever this year, but the Hamptons International Film Festival isn’t necessarily built for comfort. With an established program titled “Conflict and Resolution” helping to define its identity, the Hamptons festival knows that its patrons expect movies that confront their subjects - and maybe, make a little trouble along the way.

So it seemed somehow appropriate that last night the first world premiere movie to open a Hamptons film festival was “The Situation,” a harrowing, despairing and angry feature about the Iraq War. Director Philip Haas drew upon the experiences of screenwriter and war correspondent Wendell Steavenson to fashion a grim tale (with flashes of astringent wit) of an American reporter (Connie Nielsen) struggling to bring human dimension to the dreary procession of bombs, insurgency and atrocities.

“Where are the good guys?” someone among the appreciative, but somewhat shaken audience asked at a post-screening question-and-answer session with Haas, Nielsen, Steavenson and two of the Arab actors in the film - Mido Hamada, who played Nielsen’s photographer and Said Amadis who played a duplicitous sheik.

All agreed that the answer came in the movie from a CIA operative, played by Damian Lewis, who tells a callow colleague, “There is no good and bad here. There’s no gray area. There’s no black and white … The truth shifts around according to whomever you talk to.” (And, it must be added, by whatever each person involved, soldier, diplomat, terrorist or journalist, wants most.) A lot of audience members kept coming back to that speech in the Q&A as well. Guess it had an effect. “The Situation,” which is not part of the “Conflict and Resolution” program (but could be) is scheduled for release early next year, Haas said.

Just so you don’t get the notion that it was all blood, sweat and tears last night, the prelude and postlude to the screening was festive and upbeat. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy led the cheers before the movie, brimming with enthusiasm over the raised cultural profile of Long Island with the 14th annual Hamptons fest coming days after the star-studded induction ceremonies for the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. “I like what I’m seeing lately,” Levy said.

Afterward, the movie’s director, writer and cast members repaired to an opening-night party at Gurney’s Inn.

The five-day festival at the East Hampton UA Theater on Main Street kicks into higher gear today with indie producing icons Ted Hope and Christine Vachon being honored with, respectively, the festival’s third annual “Industry Toast” at East Hampton Point and a panel discussion at Guild Hall.

Among the higher-profile films screenings scheduled for today: Jay Anania’s “Day on Fire” in which Olympia Dukakis, Martin Donovan, Noah Fleiss and Carmen Chaplin play New Yorkers brought together by a Palestinian suicide bomber, and Orson and Benjamin Cummings’ “If I Didn’t Care,” a thriller set in the East End featuring festival vet Roy Scheider in the familiar role of world weary police detective.