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Oliver has been abducted by his father four times. The father has been imprisoned over the abduction. The adverse psychological effect on Oliver is evident.
Empty Arms, Broken Hearts (1994)
This clip chosen to be PG
Teacher’s notes
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This clip shows producer, narrator and interviewer Jacqueline Gillespie’s face in repose as she travels via train through rural France to interview Elisa Pridmore about the repeated abductions of her son, Oliver, by his father. Oliver’s face is seen at a window, while the voice-over explains that court officials have banned interviews with him. Gillespie greets Pridmore, who describes the abductions. The footage of Pridmore speaking to Gillespie is intercut with shots of Oliver riding his bicycle. Oliver’s father, Peter Malkin, is shown, apparently being interviewed while on holiday, and the clip then ends with footage of him being escorted by police, as the voice-over informs the viewer that he was sent to prison in the United Kingdom.
Educational value points
- The clip provides a perspective on parental child abductions, profoundly traumatic events for children and for their families. More than 20,000 children are known to have been abducted by a parent and yet the consequences of parental abductions have historically been underestimated both by the legal system and within society generally. Such abductions have usually received less media coverage and their victims less support than cases of strangers abducting children. This documentary, released in 1994, therefore serves an important role in raising public awareness of the problem.
- Film techniques are used to powerful effect in the clip. Peaceful images of the French countryside where Oliver now lives and shots of him riding and wheeling his bicycle are paired with his mother’s voice-over describing the violence and psychological distress to which she believes his father has subjected him. Background sounds can be heard during the voice-over and the birdsong and the creaking of the bicycle intensify the contrast between the events being discussed and the visuals. Other methods of narrating a story for which no footage exists include re-enactments and using still photographs
- Telling a subject’s story without being able to conduct a personal interview poses a challenge for documentary filmmakers. With the court ban on interviews with Oliver, the filmmakers instead interview his mother and minimise intrusion for Oliver by filming him but not interviewing him or requiring him to respond. They use images, especially close-ups of his face, to good effect. This means, however, that the film is from the viewpoints of the filmmakers and of Oliver’s mother, not of Oliver himself, and the extent to which this is truly Oliver’s story is debatable. Documentary filmmakers may also face, in a situation like this, the question of whether the use of a minor’s image constitutes a further invasion of the child’s rights.
- Jacqueline Gillespie’s involvement illustrates how personal experience can inform and add weight to a documentary. Gillespie’s own two children were abducted by their father in 1992, just two years before this documentary was released. As a result of Gillespie’s media connections and her ex-husband’s status as a Malaysian prince, the case received considerable media coverage and her personal circumstances would have been widely known, and sympathised with, by the documentary’s intended audience. Gillespie’s experiences lend gravitas and empathy to her role in the documentary.
- While Gillespie is shown in the role of an investigative journalist and the clip purports to give two sides of the story by allowing Oliver’s father to offer a brief rationale for his abductions, the content is heavily weighted towards the mother’s story and highlights the subjective nature of documentaries. Internationally, there are also many groups trying to raise awareness of the plight of fathers whose access to their children is restricted or obstructed by the mothers.
