The text discusses Peter Watkins, a surprisingly unknown author despite his long career. He is celebrated as an innovator of the docudrama form, yet the socio-political elements in his work go largely undiscussed. The text reveals how Watkins, step by step, and film by film, turned his actors into active collaborators in terms of filmmaking, giving them freedom to build their characters and transfer the truth larger than him and themselves. In other words, the text uncovers an artist whose career was marked by eternal struggle to make his own films and an even more fervent struggle to present them in the context of institutional prohibitions, censorship, and open animosity from critics. Watkins’ work is analysed through films such as Culloden, The War Game, Privilege, La Commune, Punishment Park, and The Journey.

Dejan D. Marković