This Is Not a Movie

Robert Fisk saw the film Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) when he was 12. He immediately knew what he wanted to be: a foreign correspondent, like the film’s hero, played by Joel McCrea.

Fisk made his dream come true. Now 73, he’s still active as an author and war reporter. But he soon realized that reality doesn’t comply with the laws of film—hence the title of this portrait: This Is Not a Movie. Wars aren’t resolved by journalists, and the bad guys don’t always get what they deserve. Nevertheless, Fisk struggles on, possessed by the idea that he has to let the world know what’s happening in the world’s hotspots. His motto: report what you see with your own eyes. Only then will you get close to the truth.

As a Middle East expert, Fisk regularly comes under figurative fire, and this is also covered in the documentary. But above all, we see how he continues to search tirelessly for the facts.