P McDonald

I'd like to praise this film (because everyone must have sympathy for suffering Palestinians), but can't. Two problems: First: Jewish people were going to Palestine in large numbers in the 1930s because they saw what was coming in Europe. Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, the Nuremberg Laws were announced in 1935. We all know what happened to those who stayed. What did Palestinians think Jews should do? They might have said, That's not our problem. But surely, you can't ignore suffering? Palestinians today need their suffering to be noticed. So did the Jews in the 1930s. And then I notice that there's not a single Jewish speaking part in the whole film. The difficult question - What's the alternative? - isn't even raised. Second: if I were a young Palestinian watching the film, I'd see it as a call to arms to continue the struggle. Women tell a boy not to shine a soldier's boots, but to shoot him; a father bites his son's hand to teach him to persevere through pain; a boy walks up to an off-duty soldier and shoots him. There is no sense of the futility of conflict. There is no nuance about who is good, who is bad. Palestinians who work with the occupiers are naïve, greedy, or on the Zionists' payroll. Good Palestinians are Palestinians who fight. Yes, it's good to see a film from the Palestinian perspective, made by Palestinians for Palestinians; yes, Palestinians have the right to make their own propaganda to counter the propaganda that's come from the West over the last 90 years (Palestine 36 may be to the Palestinian cause what Exodus was to the Zionist cause in 1960). But this is a route to continuing conflict. I cannot see how this film contributes in any way to a peaceful outcome to the ongoing suffering. I hope I am wrong.

Saltburn is about Jeffrey Epstein - as was Fennell's previous film, Promising Young Woman. It is the bad dream a young woman might have had in 2008, when it became clear that Epstein was a convicted paedophile who trafficked girls to rich and powerful men, some of them probably the fathers and grandfathers of friends she had grown up with. The sexual references are extreme, but not gratuitous. The vaginal blood refers to under-age sex. The grave scene describes what Epstein has done to the reputations of many 'noble families'. The bath scene speaks to what Epstein was after when he cultivated his relationships - how could he exploit male sexual drive? Saltburn - English place name - Anglo Saxon: Sealt Burna, salty stream.