The Road To Guantanamo
Friday, September 7, 2007
Starring: Farhad Harun, Arfan Usman, Rizwan Ahmed, Waqar Siddiqi, Shahid Iqbal
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross
95 minutes, UK (2006)
In this compelling docudrama by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, the 'Tipton Three' narrate their own experiences in America's controversial offshore detention camp The Road To Guantanamo opens with archive footage of George W Bush, flanked by a stern-faced Tony Blair, declaring his certain knowledge that all the detainees held in Guantanamo are "bad people". Everything that follows is designed to turn these words inside out, as three young British Muslims tell the story of how they came to be in US custody at Guantanamo for over two years, and discuss the Kafkaesque horrors that awaited them there, until finally they were released without charge or apology.
The title may evoke the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope 'Road' movies of the 1940s, travel-themed musical comedies with a vaguely racist depiction of non-Americans, but the exotic journey embarked upon by the so-called 'Tipton Three' was to take them into areas that were politically incorrect in an altogether different way.
It would be easy to criticise The Road to Guantanamo for being one-sided (it is), and for failing to contextualise the conduct of the US (there is not even a passing mention of 9/11), but such objections miss the point. Many times Bush, Blair and other politicians have used their considerable public platforms to present a similarly partisan, at times even subsequently discredited justification for different aspects of their 'War on Terror', including the unlimited detention without trial of men like the Tipton Three. The trio, and the more than 800 prisoners who remain at America's Cuban base, were not able to communicate their version of events to a lawyer or judge, let alone to the outside world. The Road To Guantanamo gives them their day in court, and the story these "bad people" tell is one that well deserves a hearing.
Download The Road To Guantanamo by torrent
Buy it on DVD
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross
95 minutes, UK (2006)
In this compelling docudrama by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, the 'Tipton Three' narrate their own experiences in America's controversial offshore detention camp The Road To Guantanamo opens with archive footage of George W Bush, flanked by a stern-faced Tony Blair, declaring his certain knowledge that all the detainees held in Guantanamo are "bad people". Everything that follows is designed to turn these words inside out, as three young British Muslims tell the story of how they came to be in US custody at Guantanamo for over two years, and discuss the Kafkaesque horrors that awaited them there, until finally they were released without charge or apology.
The title may evoke the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope 'Road' movies of the 1940s, travel-themed musical comedies with a vaguely racist depiction of non-Americans, but the exotic journey embarked upon by the so-called 'Tipton Three' was to take them into areas that were politically incorrect in an altogether different way.
It would be easy to criticise The Road to Guantanamo for being one-sided (it is), and for failing to contextualise the conduct of the US (there is not even a passing mention of 9/11), but such objections miss the point. Many times Bush, Blair and other politicians have used their considerable public platforms to present a similarly partisan, at times even subsequently discredited justification for different aspects of their 'War on Terror', including the unlimited detention without trial of men like the Tipton Three. The trio, and the more than 800 prisoners who remain at America's Cuban base, were not able to communicate their version of events to a lawyer or judge, let alone to the outside world. The Road To Guantanamo gives them their day in court, and the story these "bad people" tell is one that well deserves a hearing.
The Road To Guantanamo
Download The Road To Guantanamo by torrent
Buy it on DVD
Labels: Afghanistan, Geneva Convention, Guantanamo Bay, Tipton Three, torture, War Crimes, War on Terror
Posted by Optional, on
Friday, September 7, 2007.
Please Leave A Comment.
