DGA Monthly

J U N E 2 0 2 6 I 1 1 In Lesli Linka Glatter's DGA Award-winning episode of Homeland, "From A to B and Back Again," CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) continue her quest to take out terrorist leader Haissam Haqqani (Numan Acar). While stationed in Kabul, Carrie ordered a drone strike on Haqqani that, due to faulty intelligence, killed a wedding party but not its intended target. Now station chief in Islamabad, Carrie and her drone team track Haqqani's nephew Aayan (Suraj Sharma) — a Pakistani medical student whom Carrie turned into an asset — to a mountain meeting with Haqqani. In the scene Glatter chooses to revisit, Carrie watches from the Islamabad ops room as Haqqani emerges from his caravan with a surprise for Carrie's eye-in-the-sky: he is holding captive ex-director of the CIA and Carrie's mentor Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin). For Carrie to fi nally kill Haqqani and redeem the wedding strike, she would also have to kill Saul — and, in doing so, witness the destruction of her own humanity. She teeters between one compromised redemption and another, before balking and sparing her soul. S H O T T O R E M E M B E R The Kill Shot Lesli Linka Glatter's work on the Showtime series Homeland garnered her five Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and six DGA Award nominations, taking home the Guild's Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series Award for her episodes "Prisoners of War" (2020) and "From A to B and Back Again" (2015). In this article, Glatter revisits a scene that illustrates what she loved about the series. | by Rob Feld portrait by Howard Wise "This scene was all about multiple ways of seeing the same event simultaneously," Glatter says. "It was essential to see the huge visual picture to establish us in the macro geopolitical environment, as well as the micro, internal, personal, and character-driven worlds. Those two juxtapositions created the style of Homeland." Everything in Glatter's design and execution of Homeland is meant to bathe its audience in complexity, unease, and perpetual irresolution, reflecting both Carrie's internal struggle and the war on terror. "My favorite Homeland scenes were when people had completely opposing views and they're both right," she says. "We created a level of tension and anxiety under everything. Within scenes we would mix up handheld, steadicam, studio mode, handheld on a dolly, easy rig, so you always feel slightly uneasy; the ground is not solid, but always realistically-real and never exaggerated. Where is the truth in this world? Point of view was essential. Whose eyes are we seeing the world through? When is it objective or subjective? Knowing where Carrie was at all times was core, for sure — and sometimes we were only in her point of view — but all told, Homeland was about refl ecting many points of view at once." 1 This is the ops room. Carrie's eye-in-the-sky is tracking Aayan, hoping he will lead her to his uncle, Haissam Haqqani. We hadn't done the helicopter shoots for the drone footage yet, so the actors are staring at greenscreens, with our 1st AD, Nick Heckstall-Smith, reading the stage description. The ops room color palette is cool blues — you're supposed to be objective when you're running an operation — while the exterior they're watching has a warmth. I liked that juxtaposition. Carrie is not being objective in this situation, so it all refl ects her inner battles. I would typically use really wide lenses to see the world and then go in tight — so it would be very normal to shoot a 21mm or even 14mm lens and then jump to a 200mm. It was very much about whether you were inside the psyche of the character, or you were in the world of the location. 1 Carrie's drone operators are ready to fi re when she calls it. Here on the ground, Haqqani's men meet Aayan and wait for Haqqani. It's important to be with the characters here — not just eye-in-the-sky — because of the simultaneous perspectives the show brings. Everyone has a reason for doing what they do. No one sees themselves as a bad guy. Our main set was in Cape Town, South Africa and we were shooting full episodes in nine days, for 10 months. We had a day to shoot this, the helicopter shots, and the leadup scene of Aayan's journey at this remote location. I typically shot with two digital Arrifl ex cameras — I think we had some little REDs for tight interiors, too. 2 — continued on page 12

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