Vincent Lambe, director of James Bulger: "It was said that they were evil" | Movie

"It certainly was not a career change," says Vincent Lambe. "Everyone told me that this topic would not make my career, it would break."

The 38-year-old Irish director answers me when he asks me if he has directed Detainment – his Oscar-nominated short film based on the transcripts of police interrogation by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, the 10-year-old boy who murdered two years earlier. -old James Bulger in 1993 – to establish himself as director.

James's mother, Denise Fergus, had a lot of arguments earlier this month about ITV's Loose Women: "He's just trying to make his career a success. [using] the sorrow of someone else, "she said. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, James' father, Ralph Bulger, said he has witnessed numerous documentaries and reports on murder in the last 26 years and have become accustomed to them, but " to make a film so sympathetic to James' badbadins is devastating. "

"We have not done the killing again. There is no graphic violence, "says Lambe. But there is enough in what Lambe dramatized in the interviews of boys to haunt all viewers. Robert and Jon, interviewed in different police stations, blame the other for hitting James with a brick. In another of the film's most unbearable moments, two women stand in front of a corner store when they see the two boys accompany the toddler. We ask where they take it. At the Walton Street Police Station, the boys lie. She asks the other woman to watch her daughter while she takes them to the station. But the other woman says she can not because her dog does not like children. The two 10-year-olds are leaving with the boy that they will soon kill.

So why did he want to make a movie about James' murder? "I was 12 when James was murdered and I was absolutely haunted by this – like everyone else," he says. "When I asked why they had done it, it was said that they were perverse. I understand why people think like that. To say that they are perverse is one way of dealing with the fact that two 10-year-old boys have committed murder. I tried to better understand why 10 year old boys kill. "

"In the midst of hysteria in 1993, Thompson and Venables lost the right to be perceived as children, even as human beings," writes Blake Morrison in his book As If after attending the trial of murderers. "The children who had killed the kid had to be killed, or at least imprisoned for life. The word used about them stopped all the arguments. They were mean.

Lambe says it's important to describe child killers if we want to go beyond that word that blocks arguments. "I try to open the discussion, which is important if we want to understand how children can be victims of serious crimes committed by children who are victims of serious crimes." He shares the opinion of David James Smith, author of The Sleep of Reason – The James. Bulger Case, that the murderers "are not the evil monsters of the popular imagination, but only humans after all". "But that does not mean we should sympathize with them," says Lambe.

The different characters of the boys are clearly shown in Lambe's film. Thompson is dark and provocative, defying the detectives with contempt. "It's still our family that's blamed," Thompson said at one point. "I know I've never hit him, so I have nothing to do," he says to another. On the contrary, Venables collapses into hysterical tears, hugging the detectives, moaning against his mother and hitting his father. "Do not hit your father, Jon," a detective said as Venables yells, "Please, stop it, Dad, make it stop!" We can feel what it could have been Be to be Venable in the interview or at least sympathize with him.

On the whole, Lambe insists that we consider murderers as human beings. He cites the title of Niklas Radstrom's play on murder, Monsters, charged with comparison with his relatively innocuous. Reviewing this piece 10 years ago, Guardian theater critic Michael Billington wrote, "In truth, this is a sober and insane investigation into a tragic case, rather than a serious one. an act of theatrical exploitation ".

This is also true for Lambe's film, but there is a difference: while Radstrom's play, as Billington says, "tries to suggest that we all share the guilt of a dreadful murder," Detainment do not editorialize. But that does not explain either, and he risks falling between two stools: Lambe's desire to understand and his complacency to take sides.

But why do we need this movie now? Crime has barely emerged from the news for a quarter of a century. "I hope the film will inspire people to do their own research rather than just say that they are perverse," he says. Is he saying that they were not mean? "No, I think they were, but this word is used to interrupt conversations. I want to open the conversation. We have not had one since 1993. "

Detainment was nominated along with four other short films for this year's Oscars (including Black Sheep, directed by The Guardian). James' mother has requested the withdrawal of the Oscar nomination and more than 180,000 people have signed his petition. "I was very surprised at the appointment," said Lambe. "It's not something I've been looking for."

He did not ask for the opinion or approval of the Bulger family when making the film. "If we did, we would have put a lot of pressure to say it as they wanted," he says. "It would not have been balanced. There is more than one perspective in this case. "

Since then, he said he regretted not having made the film known to Fergus and that he would be happy to meet her "privately to apologize in person, explain the reasons we realized the film and offer rebaduring not to have disrespected by not consulting her. "

He had to wait for a kickback? "Of course, yes," he says. "What I did not expect, is that people who have not seen the movie make inaccurate statements about it." . He complains that Ms. Venables was portrayed as "a screaming screaming cow from a mother, which she certainly was not" and that a detective was portrayed as being aggressive towards the boys.

"It has become the basis for many tabloids reporting that the film is inaccurate," says Lambe. He claims that Kirby has since seen the film and changed position: "But the tabloids have not corrected their reports." He hopes Detainment can be quickly released in the UK as a fix for such misinformation. "It's getting harder and harder. A British film festival has already removed it because of a hate mail. At the present time, only the trailer and some excerpts from the film can be seen online. Its distributors are currently trying to get through a British broadcaster.

Does he have any regrets about detention? "Only not to talk to the Bulgarians," he says. "I'm sorry this has upset somebody. This was never the intention. Perhaps he was naive? "I do not think so," he says. "If I had to start over and start again, I would do it exactly the same way. I would not change anything in the movie. "

• The Oscars are February 24