Michael Winterbottom’s harrowing film about Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and decapitated in Karachi in 2002, is a raw account about the frantic efforts to get him back. It nails the ghastly moment when journalists became prized scalps for terror organisations. Angelina Jolie plays Pearl’s pregnant wife, Mariane – on whose memoir the film is based – with a rigour and passion that surprised even the most jaded sceptics in Cannes.

The film begins on the day Danny (Dan Futterman) fails to turn up for supper. He is working on a story about the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, and has arranged a meeting with an organisation who have background knowledge. A missed supper becomes a crisis within 24 hours. The film charts the hollow weeks Danny is missing mostly through Mariane’s eyes. The house of a close colleague becomes headquarters during the desperate search for motives and information.

There is a confusion of investigators treading on each other toes, and contradictory information about who might have snatched Pearl. Leaks and rash speculation in the press add to the vertiginous panic. At times it’s difficult to know who exactly is in charge. A terrific cast of fixers and officials tease out clues from laptops, emails, and telephone numbers. An uneasy alliance is gradually forged between an American diplomatic security agent, Randall Bennett (Will Patton), various Wall Street Journal friends including the editor, John Bussey (Denis[correct] O’Hare), the head of the Pakistan’s brand new counter-terrorism unit, Captain (Irrfan Khan), the Citizens Police Liaison Committee, and the FBI.

At the still centre of this increasingly tense investigation is Jolie’s defiant Mariane. The film shuttles manically between meetings, endless telephone calls, the growing media frenzy, and the streets of Karachi with terrific confidence. What the kidnapping means to each character is etched on their faces. The power of this giant documentary-style jigsaw lies between the rumours, the false leads, and the hard details. Winterbottom captures brilliantly the chaos of daily life in Pakistan, and the febrile atmosphere as Pearl is first denounced as a CIA spy, and then – when his Jewish roots are fatally exposed – an agent for Mossad.

The director’s rapid-fire and choppy editing gives you a genuine feel for the many different sides of Karachi, and the urgency of the investigation. Shots of street vendors and overloaded buses are slotted between armed raids and interrogations. You can almost smell the fear on suspects. And there’s a controversial flavour about the vested, sometimes murky, interests of assorted officials. Ultimately what makes the film such an affecting modern parable is the authenticity of the emotions. Jolie’s blasts of grief when Mariane hears the dreaded news that her husband has been beheaded pricks tears and raises the hairs on your neck.

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