>>REVIEW
THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO
STARRING Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, and Afran Usman
DIRECTED BY Michael Winterbottom and Matt Whitecross
Opens Friday, August 4
Uptown Screen
This film is a subjective piece of art and highly critical of the American occupation of Iraq and the treatment of prisoners captured by the U.S. government in its war on terror. I am in agreement with the film’s point of view. The Road To Guantanamo had such a profound effect on me that I simply cannot be objective.
Part drama, part documentary, The Road To Guantanamo is a fascinating film co-directed by the uncategorical auteur Michael Winterbottom. It tells the true story of The Tipton Three – Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed and Shafiq Rasula, a trio of British Muslims who in October 2001, while visiting the Middle East, were captured by insurgents, arrested for terrorism and held in the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for over two years. During that time, the three men claim they were subjected to interrogation, coercion and brutal torture in an effort to get them to admit allegiance to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. They were released without charge in March 2004.
Winterbottom and co-director Matt Whitecross use a myriad of techniques to tell this story. The real Shafiq, Asif and Ruhel serve as the film’s narrators while actors brilliantly re-enact their story as it unfolds, blurring the lines between fact and artistic license – seamlessly infusing actual news footage.
Given the circumstances and political climate, I didn’t feel that the American military was necessarily wrong in detaining Asif, Ruhel and Shafiq. There were just too many questions – what were they doing in Afghanistan one month after 9-11? Why did they spend two months there? And what were they doing with known al-Qaeda members? In the end, the questions and their answers don’t really matter, because once the three men were captured, and then sent to Guantanamo there was absolutely no excuse for the torture they received.
What’s interesting about The Road to Guantanamo is that it isn’t an anti-American/anti-war movie so much as it is an indictment of how war, by its very nature, brings out the inhumanity of its participants. Even if The Tipton Three were al-Qaeda, no human being should be subjected to months of solitary confinement, abused and degraded and above all, made to endure two years in a place that violates every code of the Geneva Convention.
The film’s thesis is clear – war is inherently evil and those who participate in it are acting not as freethinking beings but as products of their environment. Furthermore, the film begs the question – do the people responsible for war truly understand the ramifications of it? Propaganda and strategy aside, these were actual people being used to carry out orders and these were real human beings who were tortured.
Regardless of your stance on war or your opinions on military strategy, you will leave the theater thinking about The Road To Guantanamo for hours afterwards. The film puts a human face on detained prisoners and dispels any rhetoric given to allow excuses for torture and coercion. This is an important film that deserves to be seen and discussed. |
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