The radical approach of the filmmakers, Marc Hawker and Ishbel Whitaker, was not to make a fictional film. Instead they approached a UK performance artist to undergo the agony of Stress Positions, for real, over a six hour period. The resulting film accurately shows the extreme pain and anguish that this technique creates. To build the drama within the film, the film makers introduced the part of the interrogator. While the detainee undergoes the prolonged pain of Stress Positions, the interrogator becomes bored. Fed up. Waiting. He calls his daughter back home. It is all the more chilling as we relentlessly listen to the pain of the detainee, to hear the banal normalityof the interrogator.
Production Photos by David Denny.
Jiva, the performer takes up the Stress Position
The Interrogator is filmed entering the space.
Richard, the interrogator, waiting for the first take
Co-director, Marc Hawker (left), discussing how to film the "belly slap" sequence.
Amnesty (back, right) watch on as Jiva is filmed.
Richard is filmed being bored.
Setting up lights and waiting for Jiva to feel the full effects of the Stress Position.
Richard being filmed.
The Medic ensures that Jiva is OK before filming.
As Jiva finds the pain too much, the location Medic rushes in to help.
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