Great film follows reportage illustrator George Butler on a trip to Afghanistan

As a one-time news journalist (albeit at a very low level) I have a real affinity for reportage illustrators. George Butler is one of the best around and this new film by Tim Brown which follows him on a three-week trip to Afghanistan provides a great insight into his finely-honed talents. On his first trip to the war-torn country George was embedded with British troops, but he hungered to draw the locals whose lives had been so irrevocably changed over recent years. “I was always aware that over the walls there were millions of people getting on with their lives,” he says.

His most recent stay in Kabul came in the midst of the western forces leaving the country (hence the film’s title Withdraw) and it was a dangerous time with an explosion rocking the city almost every day. But George clearly relished being there and speaks about how friendly people were, even in seemingly intimidating scenarios.

George is also fascinating on the particular artistic challenges of live illustration. “You’re trying to draw your experience onto that page, whether it’s sound or movement, the fact it was too cold or too sunny or the man moved too quickly or it was too dangerous and you felt nervous. All the marks you’re making are influenced by what’s happening.”

Filmmaker Tim Brown deserves enormous credit for creating such a beautifully-shot and engaging portrait not just of George, but of reportage illustration as a craft too.