Arena

I read the story of Erna Petri as I was researching a feature film. I find that the more I research, the more unknown stories of ordinary people come out of this time period. Even though I consider myself well versed in history, I’d never heard of this story. Two weeks after reading it, the attack on the Manchester Arena occurred. As details emerged, I was immediately struck by the notion that we don’t seem to learn from the mistakes of the past. That we know where extremism leads yet some continue to pursue this broken dark path.

I realised then that I wanted to make a short film from the Erna Petri story but held back from the Manchester Arena side of it possibly because it was still so raw in many people’s minds and so close to home. Over time as I developed the script for Arena, I realised that I could not avoid the narrative imperative of Salman Abedi, that the point of the film is made by showing his journey in relation to Erna Petri, making Arena more prescient and relatable for modern audiences than if I’d merely shown Erna’s story alone in 1943.

As a Manchester film maker I feel personally connected to this story. Driven to make a statement about our lives, to not let the arena bombing pass by in to time to be forgotten, only to watch yet another horrific event unfold.