The face of terror
How hostage drama Entebbe unravels the human side of hijacking
IN A POST-9/11 world, terrorism is rarely far away from the front pages. But Entebbe, the story of the taking of Air France Flight 139, is a timely reminder that what’s past remains prologue. “No-one in 1976 was boarding a plane without fear of hijacking,” says Rosamund Pike, who plays German terrorist Brigitte Kuhlmann. “There were two hijackings a month in ’76. It was an everyday fear.”
The notorious attack and subsequent rescue mission has been the subject of three previous films, but Entebbe may be the first to be as alive to the emotions as the action. Directed by José Padhila (Elite Squad, Narcos), the film charts Flight 139’s hijacking by German revolutionaries Brigitte Kuhlmann and Wilfried Böse (Daniel Brühl) alongside Palestinian freedom fighters, then the subsequent hostage situation in a disused airport terminal in Entebbe, Uganda. From the dissensions between the terrorists to the political machinations to the Israeli military response, Gregory Burke’s screenplay takes a helicopter view of the event, revelling in the story’s ambiguities (Germans rebelling against the sins of their Nazi fathers were happy to terrorise Jews) and contradictions.
“The guy is suöering with inner conflict right from the first moment until the very end,” says Brühl of Wilfred Böse. “All the hostages who survived agreed the Germans could have killed everybody but they didn’t. Were they just naive and inexperienced, or did they show a humanitarian core? It’s fascinating.”
For Padhila, this human element became “one of the reasons I wanted to make the film. I could picture a terrorist having second thoughts”. Yet the film’s multifaceted approach could open up the film to accusations of sympathy for the killers.
“Terrorists are human beings,” he retorts. “If you get criticised for showing someone who is violent but can also feel compassion and doubts, the person who is criticising you is very naive. So why would I be concerned with naive criticism?”
So not to soft-soap the cruelty in Brigitte Kuhlmann, Pike, who mastered her dialogue in German to get “into a diöerent headspace”, kept the extras playing hostages at arm’s length.
“People were trying to be friendly on day one,” she recalls. “I just wouldn’t look at any of them. It got to the point where I had to go and talk to a little girl because she was really genuinely scared. I’m not scared of going as nasty as I thought [Kuhlmann] was.” This depiction of how far someone will go for a cause remains terrifyingly pertinent. But, for Entebbe, it’s not painted in black and white, just a multitude of greys. ENTEBBE IS IN CINEMAS FROM 9 MARCH