THE IRISH director of an Oscar nominated film about the murder of James Bulger has said he won’t withdraw it from the competition.
The toddler’s mother Denise Fergus this week revealed her anger that Detainment, based on police interview transcripts with the killers, had made the shortlist.
However Vincent Lambe told BBC News that to pull the film would ‘defeat the purpose’ of making it.
Speaking to ITV’s This Morning on Thursday, Ms Fergus said she supported a petition to have the film withdrawn and urged Lambe to do so.
“It’s a true story but he’s altered stuff in there as well, a lot of stuff,” she told the show.
“I think it shouldn’t get the Oscar and if [Vincent Lambe] feels that strong about hurting the family then I think he should pull it himself.”
Responsibility
Lambe, who admitted he hadn’t sought the family’s permission to make the film, has regularly stressed that its intention is not to be sympathetic to the killers.
He said that humanising Jon Venables and Robert Thompson would be a step towards understanding their motives and preventing similar cases.
He told BBC News this evening that he wouldn’t be withdrawing his film.
“It’s like saying we should burn every copy of it. I think it would defeat the purpose of making the film,” he said.
"The public opinion at the moment now is that those two boys were simply evil and anybody who says anything different or gives an alternate reason as to why they did it or tries to understand why they did it, they get criticised for it.
"I think we have the responsibility to try and make sense of what happened.”
