The thousand-yard stare has become a documentary trope: interviewees, only semi-aware that they’re being recorded because they’re not answering a question at that moment, are caught gazing into space, thinking about the experiences they’re here to discuss. Lost in their thoughts, their defences down, they let us see how they really feel.
It can be a cheap trick, but it’s seldom been more justifiably and effectively used than in Evacuation, a three-part recollection of British armed forces’ efforts to rescue British citizens and selected Afghans from Kabul after the Taliban regained control of the city in August 2021. Backed by Ministry of Defence footage and some stunningly immediate smartphone pictures, service personnel who were involved tell the story. Every one of them ends up distant and glassy-eyed at some point as they re-live the horror. Episode one is mostly scene-setting but by the end of it, we’re wearing thousand-yard stares at home, having seen one of the most shocking sequences any documentary will show this year.
