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Review #187 of 365
Film: The Road to Guantanamo [R] 95 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $13.00
Where Viewed: Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 17 July 2006
Time: 8:00 p.m.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
By now, my sense is that a great many citizens of the USA have semi-forgotten that shortly after the horrendous and tragically successful plot on 11 September 2001 by political terrorists whose motives are still unclear but seem to be tied to making a statement regarding failed world policy in bringing peace and prosperity to the whole of the Middle East, USA intelligence tied the plot to the organization of Osama bin Laden. With his last known location being in Afghanistan, it was then considered justifiable to give the Afghan government time to turn him over to the USA. When the ruling Taliban government failed to deliver Mr. bin Laden, the President ordered and invasion that simultaneously removed the governing Taliban from power. Nearly nobody in the world objected because the Taliban regime had been one of the world's worst violators of human rights especially for women, for over a decade. Moreover, the government was politically extreme in its fundamentalist approach to Islam and was continually committing acts, such as destroying antiquities of Afghanistan, that were simply believed to be incredible crimes against the history of the world. What many people did not realize, and it is unclear if the government of the USA comprehended this at the time, was that Afghanistan was literally chock full of 'freedom fighters' from all over the world. Historically, when a country was invaded, the people present were nearly always from the home country. They were not people who were there for the sole purpose of training to become terrorists around the world. So, when it became clear to the new forces taking over Afghanistan and to the governments of the UK and the USA that it was not going to be that simple to restore order nor to find Osama bin Laden and round up all the terrorists, they pretty much rounded up anyone that wasn't Afghani with the intention to interrogate and get information. There begins the story of four young men, all British citizens of Pakastani descent, who traveled to Pakistan for the wedding of one of their cadre, departed for Afghanistan to supply humanitarian aid, and ended up either missing or at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In what amounts to a gut wrenching story that is as incredibly hard to believe as it is to watch, these four men: Safiq (Riz Ahmed), Ruhel (Farhad Harun), Monir (Waqar Siddiqui), and Asif Iqbal (Afran Usman), all in their early 20s and all with their entire lives ahead of them, according to their story and the film, ventured off with good intentions and ended up learning the rules of the new world order.
"…heart breaking…"
The film aptly entitled, The Road to Guantanmo, and directed by Michael (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, then is the story of these four told in recreated footage filmed mostly in Iran, by some irony, and by some of them themselves in post interviews. Their tale begins, of course, with their journey to Pakistan and then their unsavory journey to Kandahar and then Kabul. Along the way, one gets very sick and dehydrated, and all four begin to wonder if their resolve to help their Muslim brothers in Afghanistan was the right decision. None of them has any idea, however, that within a few days, they would find Monir missing forever, and the other three bound and hooded in the hands of the Northern Alliance.
After transport via truck—where dozens and dozens of men died, they and many dozens of other foreign citizens are handed over to the USA military. Their described treatment depicted in the film beginning with their capture and subsequent containment was difficult to watch. After some time of being interrogated and questioned over and over again, finally, they are shaved and shipped like cargo, locked to the floor of a giant US military transport plane, to the new enemy combatant Camp X-Ray in Guantamo Bay, Cuba. Here, according to the story and the men themselves, they were kept like dogs in very small chain-link fence cages. They were not allowed to move or talk to anyone for months. They were given two buckets: one for water and one for their human waste products. They were interrogated constantly, and when they failed to deliver information or admit guilt, they were subjected to all manners of treatments including being chained, hands between feet, to a metal ring on the floor of a darkened room for hours at a time and blasted with cold air or heavy metal music. In the case of these three men, according to them, they were never guilty of any collaboration with any terrorist organization. They claim throughout the film that there is ample evidence of their being in England during the times their interrogators claim they were at rallies in the Afghanistan supporting Osama bin Laden. There is no evidence in the film presented that their interrogators ever sought or took even the most basic of steps to determine if the men were actually telling the truth. At one point, it becomes obvious from the film that the men are in a Catch-22 situation. If they persisted in claiming innocence, they would never be released, but if they admitted to guilt, they will be sent to a military tribunal and most likely sentenced to death. What are they to do to get out of this mess? They have no access to a lawyer and no access to their family members. They are locked away in solitary confinement for months at a time. All tolled they are kept in Camp X-Ray and then Camp Delta for more than 3 years. Three years without ever being charged with anything or found guilty of anything. From their points of view, this would not seem to be in keeping with the principles of the USA judicial system. Yet, as it has been said time and again throughout the existence of these two camps, the detainees are not citizens of the USA and given that they are not members of a military they are not covered by the Geneva Convention.
Now, of course, there is no way to know at this point in time, how much of their stories of how they were treated are factual. And the directors leave it up to the audience to accept as much or as little of their story as they can stomach. In so doing, the directors have permitted the men a venue to share their story for the rest of the world to evaluate. Certainly, their story is powerful. Indeed, and it is heart breaking on many levels just as it is to learn that a man was just released after serving 20 years in prison for a crime that DNA evidence has now proved he could not have committed. Any time people must be held against their will for things they did not do, it is going to be quite sad. What is more difficult to watch, however, is the stories of the treatment the men account. I doubt most civilized people can watch these scenes without squirming. In the end, the film does cause one to think and wonder. Without being put in charge of such situations, it is difficult to be sure how one would handle them. The men were eventually released and transported back to the UK. Only time will tell what impact their detainment had on them in the long run.
After transport via truck—where dozens and dozens of men died, they and many dozens of other foreign citizens are handed over to the USA military. Their described treatment depicted in the film beginning with their capture and subsequent containment was difficult to watch. After some time of being interrogated and questioned over and over again, finally, they are shaved and shipped like cargo, locked to the floor of a giant US military transport plane, to the new enemy combatant Camp X-Ray in Guantamo Bay, Cuba. Here, according to the story and the men themselves, they were kept like dogs in very small chain-link fence cages. They were not allowed to move or talk to anyone for months. They were given two buckets: one for water and one for their human waste products. They were interrogated constantly, and when they failed to deliver information or admit guilt, they were subjected to all manners of treatments including being chained, hands between feet, to a metal ring on the floor of a darkened room for hours at a time and blasted with cold air or heavy metal music. In the case of these three men, according to them, they were never guilty of any collaboration with any terrorist organization. They claim throughout the film that there is ample evidence of their being in England during the times their interrogators claim they were at rallies in the Afghanistan supporting Osama bin Laden. There is no evidence in the film presented that their interrogators ever sought or took even the most basic of steps to determine if the men were actually telling the truth. At one point, it becomes obvious from the film that the men are in a Catch-22 situation. If they persisted in claiming innocence, they would never be released, but if they admitted to guilt, they will be sent to a military tribunal and most likely sentenced to death. What are they to do to get out of this mess? They have no access to a lawyer and no access to their family members. They are locked away in solitary confinement for months at a time. All tolled they are kept in Camp X-Ray and then Camp Delta for more than 3 years. Three years without ever being charged with anything or found guilty of anything. From their points of view, this would not seem to be in keeping with the principles of the USA judicial system. Yet, as it has been said time and again throughout the existence of these two camps, the detainees are not citizens of the USA and given that they are not members of a military they are not covered by the Geneva Convention.
Now, of course, there is no way to know at this point in time, how much of their stories of how they were treated are factual. And the directors leave it up to the audience to accept as much or as little of their story as they can stomach. In so doing, the directors have permitted the men a venue to share their story for the rest of the world to evaluate. Certainly, their story is powerful. Indeed, and it is heart breaking on many levels just as it is to learn that a man was just released after serving 20 years in prison for a crime that DNA evidence has now proved he could not have committed. Any time people must be held against their will for things they did not do, it is going to be quite sad. What is more difficult to watch, however, is the stories of the treatment the men account. I doubt most civilized people can watch these scenes without squirming. In the end, the film does cause one to think and wonder. Without being put in charge of such situations, it is difficult to be sure how one would handle them. The men were eventually released and transported back to the UK. Only time will tell what impact their detainment had on them in the long run.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
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The Road To Guantanamo [DVD](2006) DVD
Movies directed by: Michael Winterbottom
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Review-lite [150-word cap]
After 11 September 2001, USA intelligence tied the plot to Osama bin Laden forcing the US government to demand that the Afghani Taliban turn him over or face invasion. When the Taliban failed to deliver, the coalition invaded, at just the same time as four young men: Safiq (Riz Ahmed), Ruhel (Farhad Harun), Monir (Waqar Siddiqui), and Asif (Afran Usman), British citizens of Pakastani descent, had traveled to Pakistan for the wedding of one of their cadre, departed for Afghanistan for humanitarian purposes, and ended up labeled enemy combatants by the Northern Alliance. Eventually, they were turned over to the US military and shipped to Camp X-Ray in Cuba. They ventured off with good intentions and ended up on The Road to Guantanmo where they learned the rules of the new world order as they were detained for over three years without being charged or proven guilty of any crime.
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