Flying Blind Review

• 24th Jul 2013

Flying Blind makes an interesting comparison to a British conspiracy thriller made in 1986 starring
Michael Caine and Nigel Havers called The Whistle Blower. As with Flying Blind, The Whistle
Blower is very much a film of its time. In the earlier film Nigel Havers plays an employee at
Cheltenham GCHQ with strong political views and suspicions about some high profile political
figures. This will cost his life leading his father (Caine) attempting to find out the truth resulting in a
political conspiracy. As this was made in 1986 of course the ideological enemy was Russia and
communism. Flying Blind deals with the present political climate and paranoia, namely Islamic
extremism. But here the comparisons end as Flying Blind is ostensibly a love story with both
parties on different sides of the barricades. The story centres on Frankie (Helen McCrory), a
career woman who works in the aerospace industry designing military drones for the military at
Filton near Bristol. Needless to say her work is confidential and sensitive. She also lectures
students on flight where she begins a passionate relationship with one of her students, a 24-yearold
French Algerian student called Kahil (Najib Oudghiri). Frankie is something of a control freak
with order in her life but things begin to unravel when she begins her relationship with Kahil. She
shows signs of jealousy when she comes across Kahil’s ex-girlfriend working at a restaurant,
carries out her passionate relationship with him to the detriment of her job and against the better
instincts of her father (Kenneth Cranham) whom she has a close relationship with (he had been
one of the designers who had worked on Concorde). Soon she is questioned by security at work
who inform Frankie that Kahil is not a student, but a part-time taxi driver who is in the country
illegally. When she gets home, where Kahil has been staying she finds some unsavoury jihadist
websites on her computer and decides that it is prudent to end the relationship. Naturally she then
goes back to him and the situation begins to spiral out of control.
The drama is edgy and engaging throughout but can be both a little preachy in places (this would
be hard to avoid) and one cannot help but feel that director Katarzyna Kimkiewicz is treading on
egg shells and making sure that the film remains politically correct without being too preachy. The
edginess is largely thanks to the camerawork of Kimkiewicz’s fellow Pole, Andrzej Wojciechowski
with particular reference to the nocturnal shots; even the daytime filming is made up of grey tones.
The script too is unpredictable with the audience never really sure how things will work out for both
Frankie and Kahil. The film only received a minor release and made very few ripples but is an
interesting BBC co-produced drama/love story falling very much within the beebs political softly
softly liberal approach to politics. The extras on the disc include a series of interviews with cast
and crew, a theatrical trailer and a couple of trailers for forthcoming releases.
Chris Hick