Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 55

Filmed against a stark black background, the film has a statuesque quality,
at times making Dudley Edwards appear as if a monument come to life. But
in the complexities of its central character (Dudley Edwards) and subject
(Connolly), Understanding versus Sympathy emerges not as a portrait of
Dudley Edwards, or memorial to James Connolly; more as an extended
reflection on monuments themselves, as carefully crafted projections in
stone of just one aspect (deliberately chosen, and, at the time, apparently
certain) in a set of complex, ever-shifting, awkward truths.
Image Courtesy of Edinburgh Art Festival
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