Location frustrations

IT wasn’t easy to film in Pakistan, to re-create the real life and death of an American journalist at the hands of terrorists, to capture the grief and steely resolve of the widow left behind. The paparazzi didn’t help either.

With Angelina Jolie as its star, the production of “A Mighty Heart” made headlines of its own as it was filming, mostly about alleged incidents between photographers and the actress’ security team. Director Michael Winterbottom (“The Road to Guantanamo”) downplayed the problems. “The area we were filming in -- the house was on a quiet residential street,” he says, adding that the locals were friendly. “The only problem was [the paparazzi].”

“A Mighty Heart” is based on Mariane Pearl’s memoir of her life with her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by Pakistani militants in 2002. Jolie plays Mariane; Dan Futterman, who wrote the screenplay for “Capote,” is Daniel.

Though the interiors were shot in India, “virtually all the exterior filming was done in Pakistan and in the locations where the events happened,” Winterbottom says.

“When you are doing a real story you want to know what the real places are like -- you are trying to capture the reality of the story. More importantly, I was able to meet all the people involved in the story and get their point of view and their recollections of the story.”

Winterbottom found Jolie to be “fantastic” on location. “We worked with a very small crew. It was all very informal. She really sort of set the tone ... because she was so easygoing and into the whole idea of being in the house and being as real as possible on camera.”

-- Susan King