THE TURNING POINT

Director Danny Boyle knew Western audiences might struggle entering “Slumdog Millionaire’s” world: a foreign land (India), a disquieting setting (the teeming slums of Mumbai) and young children speaking an unfamiliar language (Hindi). “There are a lot of barriers for a film like this succeeding,” Boyle says.

So the British filmmaker looked for a way to “seduce people into the story” right up front and ended up shooting a riveting police chase through a Mumbai shantytown.

While other directors might have shot the pursuit from an elevated, objective angle, Boyle and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (see Page 28 for a conversation with Mantle) captured the scene from kneecap level using a small digital camera. “It’s completely subjective -- it’s all at the height of 7-year-olds and lower,” Boyle says. “You feel completely pulled into it because you never feel it’s the policeman’s point of view.

“I believe in motion. I believe in movement. I’m an action movie director.”

-- John Horn