Arguably the most important war correspondent of her generation, Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin repeatedly put herself at risk in order to tell the individual stories behind the bland statistics of conflict. This gripping documentary flings us on to the frontline of the final joint assignment of Colvin and her colleague, the photographer Paul Conroy, covering the siege of Homs in Syria. Assembled from on-the-ground footage and interviews with colleagues, the film builds a patchwork portrait of a woman who was compelled to bear witness, at any cost. It gives heart-in-the-mouth insights into the realities of war reporting, and is a testament to the value – and the price – of great journalism.
At the heart of the film is a friendship, between this abrasive, driven woman, whom a previous colleague described as more frightening than the war they were reporting on, and the laconic, seemingly unflappable Conroy. The photographer, who survived the bombing that killed Colvin, talks of her as a journalist who was fierce in her ownership and pursuit of a story, but didn’t want to be the story. It is fitting, then, that this picture is as much about the innocent Syrian people caught up in the slaughter as it is about the journalists reporting the story. Appropriate, too, that it doesn’t flinch from showing the harrowing human cost of the conflict.
