THE 10-year-old film Spotlight was recently added to Netflix in Pakistan. It’s an old-time favourite; understandably so as it’s based on events at a newspaper in the US. The decade-old film is about the award-winning coverage, shortly after 9/11, by the American paper The Boston Globe, of a child abuse scandal in the Catholic church. The paper won a Pulitzer for the series of stories it did on the issue.

Truthfully, one of the reasons the film is a favourite is because it is of a world that perhaps no longer exists but is missed sorely by the likes of myself. A world where newspapers ruled the world of journalism, where money was aplenty and resources would be poured into teams that did investigative reports, spending months and more before something was published. It was a time when celebrity pundits and lone star podcasters did not hold forth and command all the attention. Instead, ordinary hacks, without much fame or fortune, could pool in time and effort and produce something worthy of awards and films. And it brought prestige. Which is why the owners would find the money for it.

But the film doesn’t just offer nostalgia for dinosaurs such as myself. It is also the way it has been made. Quietly and calmly, in an un-Hollywood-like way, it tackles a difficult and extraordinary subject without sensationalism. It’s not about hotshot reporters who are meeting unknown sources in dark, shadowy basements for........

© Dawn