Robert Kramer's latest film, made in France, is a mosaic-like tale involving an international set of characters whose lives intersect against a background of political intrigue. Gun-running to the Arabs for oil security; black labor; political refugees: the story - “somewhat mysterious, even hermetic at times” (Variety) - is made slightly clearer as the film focuses on the work of the protagonist, a Parisian journalist whose entanglement arises out of his search for the big story.
Kramer's films - including The Edge, Ice, and Milestones - have been some of the most incisive films made about the youth revolution of the late 60s and early 70s, and its aftermath. After Milestones, Kramer made Scenes From The Class Struggle In Portugal, a highly-praised documentary. In an interview with J.N. Thomas at the time of his 1978 visit to PFA, Kramer stated: “For me, the only solution that I've been able to understand is the contact with people's struggles outside the United States, or with the struggles of oppressed people here.... Instead of looking at yourself in the mirror, turning the mirror around....” (in the Berkeley Barb) Guns, in a way about Americans finding new lives abroad (Kramer himself now lives in France), and becoming caught up in obscure political events, will undoubtedly have a curious connection to these earlier films.