Kirsten Stewart awes critics in new movie Camp X-Ray
- 10 years ago
A far cry from her damsel in distress character in the ‘Twilight’ series, Kristen Stewart has won near unanimous critical praise for her performance in her new movie ‘Camp X-Ray’.
The young American actress stars as Amy Cole, an inexperienced guard stationed at Guantanamo Bay, the US prison in Cuba where terrorist suspects are detained. Her convictions are shaken after she strikes up a tenuous friendship with one of the detainees.
At the film’s screening in New York, Stewart said the movie is not trying to make a statement.
“It’s a reminder of a subject but it offers no opinion. I think it’s a really stark, objective view of what we learned about what that place is like. It definitely doesn’t offer any answers to the questions, but it asks them and, mainly, it really is about two people traversing this, you know, complicated and difficult area,” she said.
‘Camp X-Ray’ is the directorial debut of Peter Sattler, who also wrote the screenplay. It co-stars Iranian actor Peyman Moaadi, best known for his role as the husband in Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning movie ‘A Separation’. Moaadi plays Ali Amir, an innocent prisoner who has been held at Camp Delta for eight years.
“It is a film about listening to each other, hearing each other and talking to each other, and listening to each other’s story. And I love it because it’s like we can make friendship and make the world a better place by (doing) this and this is what happens between me and Kristen Stewart in this film,” said Moaadi.
The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to mixed reviews, with Stewart and Moaadi’s performances described by one critic as “stronger than the film which contains them”.
‘Camp X-Ray’ is on global release later this month.
The young American actress stars as Amy Cole, an inexperienced guard stationed at Guantanamo Bay, the US prison in Cuba where terrorist suspects are detained. Her convictions are shaken after she strikes up a tenuous friendship with one of the detainees.
At the film’s screening in New York, Stewart said the movie is not trying to make a statement.
“It’s a reminder of a subject but it offers no opinion. I think it’s a really stark, objective view of what we learned about what that place is like. It definitely doesn’t offer any answers to the questions, but it asks them and, mainly, it really is about two people traversing this, you know, complicated and difficult area,” she said.
‘Camp X-Ray’ is the directorial debut of Peter Sattler, who also wrote the screenplay. It co-stars Iranian actor Peyman Moaadi, best known for his role as the husband in Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning movie ‘A Separation’. Moaadi plays Ali Amir, an innocent prisoner who has been held at Camp Delta for eight years.
“It is a film about listening to each other, hearing each other and talking to each other, and listening to each other’s story. And I love it because it’s like we can make friendship and make the world a better place by (doing) this and this is what happens between me and Kristen Stewart in this film,” said Moaadi.
The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to mixed reviews, with Stewart and Moaadi’s performances described by one critic as “stronger than the film which contains them”.
‘Camp X-Ray’ is on global release later this month.