This Aint No Heartland

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Mon 11 September 2006 // 20:00

THIS AIN'T NO HEARTLAND
(Horvath / 2004 / Austria / digital / 105mins / no cert)
(Mon 11th / 8pm / £4/3)

Philosophical meanderings are set against the sparce, "wide open" landscape of the mid-west in this sensitive and powerful documentary. Angered by USA's War on Terror actions in the middle east in the wake of 11/9/01, Austrian filmmaker Andreas Horvath travelled to mid-west America to interview and confront normal, rural people with questions of accountability, responcibility and WMD's. He quickly found that the people he encountered would spiral the issues raised down to their own front porch, their own limited perspective. Due to this, it contains as much revealing, ethnographic depth as any study of an African tribe. Along with many touching (and at times grimly funny) interviews, we are witness to a demolition derby and a re-enactment of the civil war- both which help to illustrate the peoples own personal perspective on war and conflict. The finished film has been called the FARGO of documentries, winning prizes and acclaim from America and Europe, but has never been screened in the UK, until now...