Nightingale is a fascinating character study in which we go deep inside a Protagonist's psyche as vocalized through dialogue and visualized through action. No dreams. No interior imagery. Rather an intense, persistent portrayal of this one individual, never straying from his perspective. The decisions to confine the story to one location and compress the events to a handful of days reinforces the immersion into Peter's psyche. The movie poster's tagline is intriguing: "There's no escaping your own mind." That's a great thumbnail summary of the story. Indeed I am left to wonder whether EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS is a construction of Peter's fragmented imagination. In other words, nothing which occurs in the movie is 'real'. The conversations he has on the phone, the visitors, the police at the end, all of it a part of Peter's demented fantasies. In fact, I would be tempted to include the fate of his mother were it not for the blood soaked body. Clearly some of what transpires is imagined. Oleweyo says at much in an interview I will post tomorrow. In any event, Nightingale is an unsettling movie - and I mean that in a most positive way. If you haven't seen it, it's available on HBO now. Watch it and let me know what you think.

I recently watched this wonderful film on HBO, and it really stuck with me. Writing, directing, performance ... all top notch. Frederick, did Peter suffer from a specific, real-life mental condition, perhaps something that you discovered during research? Or was he modeled after someone you've known or seen in your life?

David Oyelowo gave the script to a psychiatrist prior to production and concluded that the character was suffering from Dissociative Disorder - multiple personalities - but that wasn't a part of my thinking at all. To me, Peter is simply someone who wants something so desperately that he's lost touch with reality. That kind of fervent longing for something you can't have is pretty easy to relate to, I think. It is for me, anyway. The character isn't based on anyone in particular, but I've known a lot of people like Peter over the years, particularly in showbiz. You have to lose touch with reality a bit to pursue this kind of work.

Thanks for that, Frederick. Think you'll be interested to check out the video in the Day 2 post in which Oyelowo discusses his character pretty thoroughly.