The Unknown Known

The Unknown Known

Master of the documentary form, director Errol Morris returns to UK screens with another stunning film: The Unknown Known on 21 March 2014.

Returning to the familiar territory of Oscar® winning The Fog of War (2003), in this latest film Morris profiles the controversial, divisive and fascinating Donald Rumsfeld, former United States Secretary of Defence under President George W. Bush, covering 40 years of his career from his early days as a congressman to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

With Rumsfeld, Morris uses, as he did with Robert McNamara, his patented 'interrotron' camera, which allows the subject to look and respond directly to the interviewer - giving the audience the impression that the subject is speaking straight at them. The result is an intimate conversation, perhaps even a confessional, from one of history’s most notorious characters.

Instead of using question and answer format, Morris has Rumsfeld recite and explain his 'snowflakes' - the estimated 20,000 memos he wrote across almost fifty years in Congress, the White House, in business, and twice at the Pentagon.

The memos provide a window into Rumsfeld’s unique version of history. Illustrating the memos with news footage, photos, recordings (including excerpts from the Watergate scandal where he served under Nixon), files and images from Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo Bay, Morris takes us where few have ever been - beyond the web of words into the unfamiliar terrain of Rumsfeld’s mind.

The Unknown Known presents history from the inside out. It shows how the ideas, the fears, and the certainties of one man, written out on paper, transformed America, changed the course of history - and led to war.

Directed by Errol Morris

The Unknown Known is released 21st March.