stephen  d. leece

Following hot on the heels of his acclaimed Restrepo Sebastian Junger brings us this touching portrait of his friend and collaborator, British photographer Tim Hetherington who was tragically killed by shrapnel from an RPG in Misrata, Libya in 2011.

The strength of this work is the fact that Hetherington, a still photographer collaborated with a motion picture maker for his career from the Liberian Civil War onwards, so not only does Hetherington leave us with his beautiful photographs capturing the humanity and inhumanity of war, but also leaves us with a record of him as an individual.

The image that results from this documentary is that of a man who was a fine photographer and a fine humanitarian in equal measure.

Beginning with candid interviews, and outtakes of Hetherington himself trying, and on occasion failing to explain his motivation for turning his back on a promising Oxford academic career to take up travel and photojournalism Junger takes us on an emotional acid trip into the insanity and comradeship of war via Liberia, Afghanistan and ultimately Libya.

Along the way we meet his parents, fellow journalists and his Somalian girlfriend who provide insights into his character without the sentimentality one normally associates with a documentary about the recently deceased.  

The only question lingering at the end of the film is why on earth did Hetherington go back to Tripoli Street when he had already seen people killed there earlier that day?

Perhaps the film’s closing music is the answer- The Pogues rendition of Danny Boy- sometimes a man has to do….