Never Look Away

“For better or worse, war is an amazing feeling,” CNN correspondent Stefano Kotsonis utters at the start of Never Look Away. In her directorial debut, Lucy Lawless tells the remarkable story of gutsy New Zealand photojournalist Margaret Moth. Featuring sepia-tinged scrapbook photos interspersed with harrowing war footage, Lawless is as adept at animating her subject as she is at delivering a gruesome history lesson. It’s a fitting tribute to Moth, who, on the frontline during Operation Desert Storm and the Bosnian War, didn’t shy away from documenting the ugliest aspects of humanity.

Never Look Away paints an image of a woman whose entire existence appeared to hinge on traversing the limits of danger. A punk, a renegade and a daredevil, Moth is inspirational in so many ways, navigating a male-dominated environment and taking on increasingly perilous missions. Her death-defying bravado in war zones was a symptom, perhaps, of a misogynistic culture in which women had to prove the extent of their mettle in order to be taken seriously by their male peers. But in exalting Moth, the filmmakers also gloss over some of the less savoury aspects of her persona. Jeff Russi, 17 when he began a romantic relationship with 30-year-old Moth, recalls being enraptured by his older paramour, who took the talented straight-A student away from his high school education, offered him copious amounts of drugs and initiated him into her party-hard lifestyle.

Where the documentary does excel is in detailing the pain that punctuated Moth’s all-too-brief life. After a horrific war injury that resulted in the destruction of her tongue, the once autonomous and undismayed camerawoman was left unable to speak. Even then, she did not accept defeat, and Moth, whose indefatigability can only be admired, returned to work, famously chronicling the crimes of the IDF in Lebanon. Here, Moth’s empathy – and perhaps the true purpose behind her daredevil defiance – becomes pronounced, with the photojournalist cataloguing the dehumanised victims of these attacks in haunting detail.

Never Look Away is an earnest portrait of the extraordinary life of a woman who pushed boundaries at every turn. Not only did Moth refuse to let her inability to speak render herself voiceless, but she gave a voice to those oppressed by imperialistic violence.

Antonia Georgiou

Never Look Away is released in UK cinemas on 2^nd December 2024.

Watch the trailer for Never Look Away here: