Year 1, Alan Reeve after thirty years of imprisonment

Story
In YEAR ONE filmmaker Joost Seelen sketches Alan Reeve’s first year as a free man after having been in jail almost permanently over the past thirty years. When he was fifteen years of age, the Englishman Alan Reeve killed a British teenager in 1964. He was put behind bars at Broadmoore prison, was suspected of a second murder in there, and fled to Amsterdam in 1980. Reeve went underground in the anonymity of the squatters’ movement. A year later he was caught while stealing a bottle of whiskey. He shot two policemen and took a woman hostage. Again he was sent to prison (Netherlands) for 14 years.

Social Interest
The documentary film YEAR ONE centers around one single question – Is it safe to have man like Alan Reeve walk the streets free? The film begins a few days before Reeve’s release, after which he has to get used to his freedom. What follows is the judicial struggle against the imminent deportation to England. Through archive material and pictures, an image is drawn up of Reeve’s youth which was coloured by violence. Another point of attention is the psychological effect on Reeve of the public’s opinion of him. A world that does not understand him and that he himself cannot accept or comprehend.

Political Relevance
Every country has a different way of dealing with its criminals. In YEAR ONE it is evident that if Reeve where to go back to England, he would immediately be sent to jail for his crimes. In the Netherlands, however, he is on parol. It is of particular interest that Reeve, who is a highly intelligent political science mayor with a violent background and peculiar vision on society and law, is now allowed to live his life, while in England he would not.

Awards
During IDFA 1993, it was nominated for the ‘JORIS IVENS AWARD’ and also shown at film festivals in Rotterdam, Cork and Sheffield. Presented at various film theatres by NFM/IAF.