Separated

Still, current events lend the film a power that goes beyond its flaws. The way “Separated” looks back in indignation is now incalculably enhanced by fear for the future, with even more traumatizing measures on the horizon...

“Separated” is characteristically thorough and eye-opening.

Nonetheless, what we glean from the totality of the interviews and research, and Morris’ well-honed style of coalescing information, is damning enough.

White’s fire, and his soaring warnings about how political sycophants willing to effect a policy like family separation will always exist, are powerful enough.

“Separated” finds Morris back in “The Fog of War” mode: angry, engaged and determined to expose an injustice too monumental to be ignored.

It’s a story of dehumanisation, children in cages, and the blurting, vote-craving policy-making of government by id -- and it’s shattering to experience.

The resulting film is informative but not particularly engaging, blending interviews with an arguably unnecessary fictionalized depiction of a Guatemalan mother and son’s border crossing.

Morris’ moments of recreation feel unnecessary given the gravitas of the testimony, memos and e-mails on display, but this is another very necessary reminder of the evils perpetrated by the Trump administration that plays like a prologue to the sequel.

Separated is an alarming, upsetting, and stirring look at one of the darkest chapters in American history. It demands to be seen, not just to pay tribute to those hurt by this policy, but to remind audiences that it very well could happen again.

Separated is a compelling, urgent, and essential examination of an ongoing injustice (over 1300 children remain separated today, according to the Department of Homeland Security) that every American should see and ponder before going to the polls.