15 Mar 2015

Michael Winterbottom: forgotten story of Meredith Kercher

The British film director Michael Winterbottom has never shied away from difficult subjects and his latest film, based on the murder of the British student Meredith Kercher, is no exception.

It is a film which provoked a furore months before its release. The Face of an Angel is British director Michael Winterbottom’s latest movie, loosely based on the 2007 murder of student Meredith Kercher.

The University of Leeds student from Coulsdon in Surrey, was stabbed to death in what prosecutors say began as a sexual assault.

A media storm ensued around American suspect, Amanda Knox, who had her murder conviction overturned in 2011, after spending four years in jail for the alleged crime.

Knox had been portrayed as everything from a scheming she-devil to an innocent ingenue trapped in the clutches of the Italian justice system throughout the trial.

What came after her release was a media rumpus, including Winterbottom’s interest in creating a feature film surrounding the case.

‘Soap opera’

Winterbottom, however, has insisted the film is not trying to sensationalise the crime but to explore society’s fascination with violence and the media circus that follows.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, he said: “It is about the media and the way in which journalists covered the case.

“The starting point was why are people so fascinated by it, why do people spend so much time watching or reading about these sorts of stories.

I think the media represent us. Michael Winterbottom

Asked if he had concluded what had happened, Winterbottom said: “I never really felt I could possibly know what happened.

“The real case has been going on for six or seven years, and clearly it becomes impossible to know – it becomes a sort of soap opera.

“The girl who was killed is forgotten in these stories.”