Having moved from directing small, politically charged dramas like Tsotsi and Rendition to big blockbusters, South African filmmaker Gavin Hood hit a career blip with the much-derided (and, to be fair, writer’s strike-affected) 2009 superhero film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now, he is back in charge with Eye In The Sky, a star-studded thriller focusing on the moral complexities of modern warfare.

“Yeah, sorry about that!” he laughs. “Honestly, as a young filmmaker, you’re compelled to write about things you’re passionate about, so I wrote the screenplay for A Reasonable Man and Tsotsi. And then you do whatever you can to get that story made. I was a little naive when I came to Wolverine, only because I had not worked for a big studio, and I was used to driving my projects myself. But then I was working for a studio that very much controlled their franchise, let’s just say that.”
However, Hood’s independent sensibilities and studio experience serve him impeccably on Eye In The Sky, a troubling thriller that forces the characters and audience to decide whether launching a drone strike against two suicide bombers is justified – even if an innocent girl also dies. As time runs out and the potential suicide bombing looms, the film evokes an unnerving desire for action to be taken, even though it will be lethal either way.
“That was the response I had, that conflict, that questioning myself,” says Hood. “Because nobody knows what’s going to happen. People frame it as you’re saving 80 people by killing the bombers, but it’s possibly 80 people, we don’t know. I don’t know what I would do.”
His talent lies in making the audience not only understand but experience the conflicts being played out onscreen – an ability heightened by his own experience of being drafted at 17 and going through deep moral dilemmas. Aaron Paul’s drone pilot becomes a particular vessel for this empathy, as he’s faced with launching his first ever attack. He is one of the few people onscreen who agitates against inflicting unnecessary violence.
“It’s a misconception that many people have that soldiers simply have to follow orders,” says Hood. “If that were true, there would be no Nuremburg trial of Nazis, no accountability for the excesses of Abu Ghraib, because the excuse would just be, ‘I was following orders’. Accountability matters. If your seniors are giving you orders that are illegal, you have a duty to defy that order. It seems so unmilitary – and to me that’s fascinating. And I chose to focus on a new drone pilot, who was pulling the trigger for the first time, because all pilots are new at one point. Some of them cope and learn to compartmentalise, some don’t. But the audience is in the position of Aaron Paul’s character, because they too have never dropped a hellfire, so they feel the enormity of it – as he does.”
The humour of the film is vital to both represent the absurd hypocrisy of the political and governmental conversation behind drone strikes, while also providing the audience with a brief respite from the oppressive tension. As the most advanced surveillance technology available fails because the battery dies, as a politician with food poisoning makes military calls from his bathroom, and as British officials maintain a bizarrely grand form of politeness while sanctioning murder, the wry script inspires the kind of laughter that gets caught in your throat, as you realise that nothing’s really funny.
“The situation is annoyingly farcical,” he agrees. “Yet how do you keep it real? If I was one of those politicians, I also wouldn’t like being put on the spot – so you can imagine doing everything you can to avoid taking that life. And yet as an audience member you can also be deeply frustrated. But are we frustrated because we just want to get on with it, or do we actually realise that getting on with it is not at all simple?”
Key to this dark wit is the presence of the late Alan Rickman, in his final onscreen performance. (Though he also provides the voice of the Blue Caterpillar in James Bobin’s upcoming Alice Through The Looking Glass). Playing the lieutenant general forced to endure the self-serving indecisiveness of politicians, he is quiet, empathetic and deeply funny. Hood is effusive about Rickman’s talent.
“Alan was amazing. Not only can you leave it to him to make a scene with just a cynical roll of an eye, but he was also never about ego, all about the work. I asked him, ‘Is there anything in the script you don’t like?’ and in Alan’s truly, wonderful, humble, intelligent and kind way, he said, ‘I love this story, so don’t let me get in the way of it. There are moments you want humour, and you mustn’t let me overplay it’. It was about finding the humour without cheapening the story. Alan understood that perfectly. He was a gentleman.”

Eye In The Skyis in cinemas now.