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Film review : Eye in the Sky

A well crafted film that deals with a very modern style of warfare and the politics that goes with it. In the past when war was declared, politicians stayed back mostly, not so now.

The film involves good actors, Oscar winner Helen Mirren playing Colonel Katherine Powell located in an airbase in England, the late Alan Rickman playing a Lt General located with the politicians in Whitehall, London, Aaron Paul is the (armed) drone pilot located in Nevada and Barkhad Abdi is with Kenyan security keeping an eye with a electronic wasp on suicide bombers, ready to drop their deadly load on a market. The modern communications bring all elements together.

The story starts with a British woman who has become an Al Queda radical organizing murder in England. The British have determined they have the right to eliminate her. The electronic wasp discovers the suicide bombers and that brings in all kinds of jurisdictional situations.

More complications occur when a young girl sets up shop outside the bombers headquarters to sell the bread her mother had baked. What started as a simple elimination now has become a severe question of collateral damage that is being discussed all the way to the prime minister, the U.S. president and the individuals along the way.

Besides excellent performances by all actors especially Mirren (who probably doesn't know how to act otherwise) it is a primer on how war and politics works these days.

Adu Raudkivi

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