Home Turf addresses the content of cinema as an element of reality. It is what is real in the film, and yet it’s neither the characters – who stay as characters - nor the story, which is still a story, but the ideals, the ideas and the perceptions of the characters which are the reality. The modern hero is one of the main characters, this choice is part of the mythology of the film, and, by consequence, part of the mythology of the twentieth century. The film is set in Northern Ireland, near the border of the Republic of Ireland, during a period of tension between these two Northern communities. Two communities which share practically the same values, and which have produced men who hold the same attitude towards their history; or a story of heroes struggling individually for the good of themselves, and glorious disasters and victories. The fictional ‘history’ uels the real present. So what happens in the film? A dream, a car chase, a fugitive who poses as one of his enemies after his successful escape and in doing so finds refuge with a farmer. The farmer finds himself puzzled and in a dilemma, he informs the police, friends he has inadvertently betrayed or he settles his scores alone. His decision is clear, logical, inevitable. The Western is not far, neither is the war film, there is no way to construct meaning in a damaged image. The history of the image, staging and sound, beyond the history of cinema, is giving the work a temporary duplicity, which crosses and calls into question the ideals, ideas and perceptions of viewers.
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