Bayview Entertainment announced this past week that writer/director Martin Webster’s The Penitent and the 2009 award-winning documentary that broad him worldwide attention, Diary of a Disgrace Soldier, will be making its domestic Blu-ray debut on Sept. 20.
Back in 2009 the documentary filmmaking team of Richard Atkinson, Neil Cole and Chris Rowe, working with Martin Webster — a former Corporal with the U.K.’s 1st Battalion, Light Infantry — put together the award-winning documentary, Diary of a Disgraced Soldier.
Webster had made headlines in 2006 for the impromptu footage he shot in 2004 of British troops, who were under siege at the time in Al Amara, Iraq, beating four of their Iraqi tormentors. It became a national scandal, Webster was arrested and vilified for his actions, but later the charges against were quietly dropped and he resigned from the army.
Needless to say, the film was super-charged as it focused on the aftermath of the events, how it haunted him, the PDSD that he suffered from his combat experiences and how he was able to turn this disaster in his life into a positive.
In addition to serving in Iraq, he also did tours of duty in Northern Ireland and Sierra Leone … 12 years in all.
This brings us to his latest film, The Penitent, which is a dramatic war tale that focuses on a British officer, Lieutenant Kelly (Steven Kelly — Eve, Grail), serving with a detachment assigned as UN peace-keeping forces in Bosnia. On a seemingly routine patrol, in the quiet countryside, the patrol comes across a heavily armed group — up to no good (murdering civilians) — who ambush and wipe-out Kelly’s command.
He manages to survive and returns to civilian life, which means that he has been basically cut adrift. His mental health begins to unravel … it’s not pretty.
Based on Webster’s own combat experiences and his work as a therapist during the years following his “retirement” from the military, The Penitent has been getting rave reviews from combat veterans, but Webster continues to get the cold shoulder from official sources.
The film was self-funded and Cornwall, England was magically transformed into the Bosnian countryside.
The Penitent worked the festival circuit throughout 2021, piling up wins at the New York Cinema Festival, Tokyo Film Festival, Cannes World Film Festival, Berlin International Arts Film Festival and more, many more. Bayview has the Blu-ray lined for domestic viewing on Sept. 20, as well as Diary of a Disgrace Soldier on the same date.
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