Incredibly Moving.

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Storyville: Executed by Isis — The James Foley Story,



A study of captivity, companionship, hope, resignation and stoic courage


James Foley was the journalist whose beheading was filmed and released by his Isis captors in 2014. The background to this bald statement is movingly filled in by Storyville: Executed by Isis — The James Foley Story (Sunday, BBC4 10pm). An American from New Hampshire, Foley came from a large, affectionate family, almost a poster for Norman Rockwell-like cheerfulness, health and decency. They also refrain from displaying bitterness or questioning too closely — though the doubts are there — the American authorities’ tactics: to remain quiet, not to pay a ransom … 

The bulk of Brian Oakes’s film is a study of captivity, companionship, hope, resignation and stoic courage. The most moving account is from Daniel, a Danish photojournalist, with memories of made-up board games (date stones used as counters) to an improvised Christmas celebration when the prisoners sat in a circle, each saying something nice to the person next to him. Daniel said James was the best person he had met, there was no evil in him, he was happy they had met. “I felt I’d had the best Christmas in my life,” he concludes.


The Foley family’s agony was intensified by the erratic communications from Isis. Demands for ransom, death threats, long silences, all on untraceable emails; an excited trip to Paris to meet the released French hostages in search of bargaining tips. As James’s old newspaper boss observes, “15 European hostages are alive and free today. I wish we’d started negotiating earlier.” The prisoners’ conditions got worse, treatment more sadistic — one detail repeated by many who met them singles out the English-sounding guards as especially venomous. Four nicknamed “The Beatles” have emerged from other accounts as almost psychopathic.
The film is restrained and understated — the execution is not shown, though Foley’s forced speech to camera is. The victim’s dignity and courage stand out even more, as does the savagery of his captors who scarcely deserve the description human. Questions persist about the American authorities’ tactics. Much remains unknown and presumably will for some time yet.














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