The Road to Guantanamo

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Movie
German title The Road to Guantánamo
Original title The Road to Guantánamo
Country of production UK
original language English
Publishing year 2006
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 14
Rod
Director Michael Winterbottom
Mat Whitecross
production Andrew Eaton
Melissa Parmenter
Michael Winterbottom
camera Marcel Zyskind
cut Mat Whitecross,
Michael Winterbottom
occupation

The Road to Guantanamo is a docu-drama about three British prisoners in American prison camp in Guantanamo Bay ( Cuba ) in 2006. It was directed by Michael Winterbottom , along with Mat Whitecross . The film premiered on February 14, 2006 at the Berlinale and received the Silver Bear for Best Director . The film premiered on TV on the British broadcaster Channel 4 on March 9, 2006. The very next day it was simultaneously released in cinemas, on DVD and on the Internet. The film was shot in Afghanistan , Pakistan and as a replacement for Cuba in Iran .

action

The film tells the story of Ruhal Ahmed , Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul (the so-called "Tipton Three"), three young Britons from Tipton , in 2001 by militias of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan were arrested and nearly three years have been detained in Guantánamo Bay, without charge or legal representation. Interviews with the three of them and archive recordings tell a dramatic story of their experiences during their arrest by the Northern Alliance, their extradition to the US armed forces and their imprisonment in Cuba. The film shows the use of beatings during interrogation, torture methods such as sensory deprivation and overstimulation or painful postures that are forced for a long time and the attempt by the US armed forces to elicit false confessions from them about membership of al-Qaeda and the Taliban .

In 2004, the "Tipton Drei" were released without charge. The fourth youth, Mounir, who disappeared from the American bombing while fleeing Kunduz , was never found again.

reception

The film was generally well received by international critics. However, it is widely criticized that the film does not owe the viewer the explanation why the three main characters travel to Afghanistan despite their badly injured friend, where war can apparently break out at any moment. In this context, the British newspaper The Times speaks of an “ indescribable lack of foresight” ( “insane lack of cool perspective” ). Nevertheless, Winterbottom picks up on widespread allegations by organizations such as Amnesty International that human rights violations have occurred in Guantánamo . Amnesty International has called the prison "the gulag of our age". Angela Merkel emphasizes: “An institution like Guantánamo cannot and must not exist in this way in the long term”.

Arrest of the actors

Four of the actors were detained by police at London Luton Airport for about an hour after returning from the film's premiere in Berlin. Rizwan Ahmed said that during the questioning he should have stated whether he became an actor to promote Islam and what he thinks of the Iraq war . He also said that the police cursed him and denied him a phone. They were also proposed to work as police spies.

A Bedfordshire Police spokeswoman said none of the men had been arrested and that the Terrorism Act 2000 allows police to "stop and investigate people if something happens that may be suspicious".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for The Road to Guantanamo . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ^ The Times , The Road to Guantánamo , March 9th, 2006 [1] .
  3. ^ Speech by Irene Khan at the Foreign Press Association [2] , May 25, 2005.
  4. ↑ Der Spiegel : Merkel: Guantánamo Mustn't Exist in Long Term , January 9, 2006 [3] .
  5. ↑ Using terror to fight terror, Guardian article
  6. ^ The Guardian : Guantánamo actors questioned under terror act after film festival , February 21, 2006 [4] .