The 51st Cork Film Festival opened last night when a packed Cork Opera House gave an enthusiastic reception to the European premiere of the highly controversial fictionalised docudrama, Death of A President.
The provocative film by British director Gabriel Range tells the story of a fictionalised assassination of president George Bush during a visit to a business conference in Chicago in October 2007.
The stunningly plausible film uses computer generated imagery to adapt existing footage, while it also includes a series of highly credible interviews with actors playing the roles of key participants in protecting the president and the subsequent investigation.
Superbly paced and well scored by Richard Harvey, Death of A President builds impressively to the fictional shooting of Mr Bush but then proceeds to explore the completely believable consequences that such an event would have for American society. In that sense, the film is as much about the rise of xenophobic reactions, the media's role in directing suspicion and anger and the introduction of more draconian powers with significant consequences for civil liberties in the US as it is about the fictional death of Mr Bush.
Last month, the film scooped the Best Film Award at The Toronto Film Festival but the White House has refused to comment on it, while the Republican Party in Texas has described it as "shocking and disgusting" and Senator Hilary Clinton has called it "despicable". And two major US cinema chains Regal Entertainment which runs more than 6,300 cinemas in 40 states and Cinemark USA which operates 2,500 cinemas in 34 states have both refused to show the film, while AMC Entertainment which runs 5,600 cinemas still has to decide.
However, Cork Film Festival director Mick Hannigan last night defended the festival's decision to screen the film and insisted that while it revolved around the fictionalised assassination of Mr Bush, it was not "gratuitous or exploitative".
"While the premise of the film, namely the assassination, is provocative and it's set in the future, the film explores very contemporary ideas about politics, democracy and the mass media. It's a very urgent film that should be seen by as wide an audience as possible," he said.
Irish producer of the film, Ed Guiney of Dublin-based Element Films said the company were delighted to premiere the film at the festival as it had been very supportive of some of their other films such as The Magdelene Sisters and Disco Pigs.
