A Thousand Times Good Night

Rebecca, a war photographer, is badly injured in Kabul while photographing a suicide bombing from its preparation onward. After recovering she goes home to Ireland, to her husband and two daughters, and her husband sets an explicit condition: the work or the family. Rebecca tries to stay, but her not wanting to stay is not a choice either; it has become an occupational condition. Erik Poppe wrote it from his own past, having been a war photographer before he directed. Juliette Binoche carries the part without explaining it, and the best sequence is the one where she takes her elder daughter to a refugee camp in Kenya. The question is this: if showing the suffering does not stop it, whose need is served by continuing to show it. Who it is for: viewers who like drama about the ethics of journalism, and Binoche. Who it is not for: anyone avoiding images from conflict zones.