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Reel world: Guantanamo
Guantanamo casts cold eye on covert compound
By Lindsay Wilson
lwilso55@mscd.edu

The Road to Guantanamo Rated R 95 minutes $24.96

The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has garnered a vast store of controversy since its creation in 2002. The prisoners there, suspected Taliban and al-Qaida members, have been held indefinitely without charges or trials. There have been allegations of torture and abuse, as well as mass-suicide attempts and hunger strikes by prisoners. International organizations, including the United Nations, have repeatedly called for its closure.

Michael Winterbottom’s and Mat Whitecross’ fast-paced docudrama, The Road to Guantanamo, is a visceral, personalized account of life in the notorious prison.

The film is based on the true story of three young British citizens, known as the Tipton Three, who were mistaken by U.S. troops as Taliban operatives and held for three years without charges in Guantanamo. Winterbottom and Whitecross meld news footage, interviews and dramatic recreations to pull the viewer into a hellish experience.

In late 2001, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul, all in their 20s, left their homes in Tipton, England, to return to their homeland of Pakistan for Asif’s wedding. While kicking around in Karachi, the men were stirred by a religious speaker to travel to neighboring Afghanistan, where U.S. troops had begun their offensive, to offer humanitarian aid.

Once there, the three mistakenly ended up in the Taliban stronghold of Kunduz. When Northern Alliance troops stormed the town, the friends fled with other residents of the village, including Taliban fighters, but were soon captured, interrogated and arrested by U.S. troops. They were handcuffed, hooded and flown to Guantanamo Bay.

When the three arrived at Camp X-Ray – the first holding block for new detainees that is now closed – they were locked in exposed chain-link holding cells, which closely resemble dog kennels. The prisoners were not allowed to talk, pray or walk in their tiny cells. They were repeatedly hooded, interrogated, beaten and tortured.

Eventually, they were moved to Camp Delta, where they faced more interrogations and abuse, were relentlessly accused of being al-Qaida fighters and were put in solitary confinement for months on end, their pleas of innocence falling on deaf ears.

Each of the young men ended up falsely confessing to his interrogators after much duress, but they were each released from Guantanamo with no charges, and no explanations, in 2004.

One of the film’s greatest strengths is its use of news footage to underline its message. George W. Bush appears juxtaposed with scenes of torture at Guantanamo, saying, “Remember, these ones in Guantanamo Bay are killers. They don’t share the same values we share.” Against the twisted, uncomfortable backdrop of the film’s action, his rhetoric is robbed of its intended effect.

The Road to Guantanamo has an intensity and sickening realism that alternately inspires rage and sorrow.