Sunday, April 17, 2016
Photo: Courtesy
British film, Eye in the Sky about a possible terror attack in Kenya hit the local cinemas on the April 8.
By Shirley Genga Sunday, Apr 17th 2016 at 10:28
The film features Somali actor Barkhad Abdi who made his Hollywood debut in the award winning Captain Phillips about Somali Pirates. The thriller follows Colonel Katherine Powell played by Helen Mirren who commands a mission from Sussex to capture high-level terrorists meeting in a safe house in Nairobi. A drone controlled from Nevada by pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) provides aerial surveillance, while undercover Kenyan field agents including Jama Farah played by Barkhad Abdi use short-range video bugs for ground intel.
However, things take a turn for the worse when Kenyan ground troops who are positioned nearby to execute the arrest are called off when Farah discovers that the terrorists have explosives, and are preparing two suicide bombers for what is presumed to be an attack on a civilian target in Kenya. The film explores the legal and ethical dilemmas presented by drone warfare against those using terrorist tactics, and civilians who are endangered by it. However, although the film is about Kenya, it was shot in South Africa in late 2014.