| The Road to Guantánamo | |
|---|---|
 Original poster for US release, rejected by the MFAA | |
| Directed by | |
| Written by | Michael Winterbottom |
| Produced by | Melissa Parmenter |
| Starring | Riz Ahmed Farhad Harun Arfan Usman |
| Cinematography | Marcel Zyskind |
| Edited by | Mat Whitecross Michael Winterbottom |
| Music by | Molly Nyman Harry Escott |
| Distributed by | Revolution Films Channel 4 |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Road to Guantánamo, alternativelyThe Road to Guantanamo, is a 2006 Britishdocudrama film written and directed byMichael Winterbottom[1] andMat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British citizens (the 'Tipton Three'), who were captured in 2001 inAfghanistan and detained by the United States there and for more than two years at thedetainment camp inGuantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. It premiered at theBerlinale on 14 February 2006, and was first shown in the UK onChannel 4 on 9 March 2006. The following day it was the first film to be released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD, and on the Internet.
The film was generally well received: Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross won theSilver Bear for Best Director at the56th Berlin International Film Festival,[2] and the film won theIndependent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature at theSundance Film Festival.The Times criticised Winterbottom for accepting the men's stated reasons for going to Afghanistan at a time of danger after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, as it was known asal-Qaeda andTaliban territory.
The film portrays the accounts ofRuhal Ahmed,Asif Iqbal andShafiq Rasul (the 'Tipton Three');[3][4][5] three young British men fromTipton in theWest Midlands, who are of Pakistani andBangladeshi ancestry. It features both actors and portrayals of actions, historical footage, and interviews with the three men.
They travelled toPakistan in September 2001, just days after theSeptember 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., to attend a wedding of a friend of theirs. While staying at a mosque inKarachi, the three decided to take a trip toAfghanistan to see first-hand what was happening in the region.
Mixed with interviews with the three men, and archive news footage from the period, the film portrays a dramatic account with actors of the three men's experiences: from their travels into Afghanistan to their capture and imprisonment.
Travelling by van, Ruhal, Asif, and Shafiq, with two other friends, crossed the border in October 2001 just as US warplanes began attackingTaliban positions all over the country. They made it toKandahar without incident, and to the capital city ofKabul a few days later. After nearly a month of "lingering" aimlessly around Kabul, the Tipton Three decided to return to Pakistan. But through a combination of bad luck and the increasing chaos, the friends took the wrong bus, which travelled further into Afghanistan towards the north and the front-line fighting between the Taliban and theNorthern Alliance rebels. The convoy of vehicles they were riding in was hit by an airstrike, and they were left wandering around the unfamiliar country. In mid-November, near the town ofBaghlan, the three came across a group of Taliban fighters and asked to be taken to Pakistan. Shortly afterward, all of the men were captured by Northern Alliance soldiers.
Imprisoned at a base atMazar-e Sharif, the three were interrogated and discovered to be British citizens. As they had no luggage, money, passports or any kind of identification to support their stories, Ruhal, Asif, and Shafiq were transferred to theUnited States military. They were imprisoned in aUS army stockade for a month with other prisoners, being regularly interrogated and occasionally beaten by US soldiers.
In January 2002, the 'Tipton Three' were declared "enemy combatants" by the US military, and flown with dozens of other alleged Taliban andal-Qaeda fighters toGuantanamo Bay,Cuba, where they were held for the next two years. They were held in mostlysolitary confinement without charge orlegal representation.
The film portrays several scenes depicting beatings during interrogation, the use oftorture techniques such asstress positions, and attempts by the US Army to extractforced confessions of involvement with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The isolation continued in Camp X-Ray and another camp. During two years they were subjected to more questioning by US Army andCentral Intelligence Agency interrogators.
In one incident, one US army guard atCamp X-Ray desecrated one prisoner'sQur'an by throwing it to the ground to incite a reaction from the rest of the prisoners. Ruhal witnessed a group of US soldiers severely beat up an unruly and mentally illArab prisoner for not obeying their orders. When Ruhal shouts out that the beatings violate theGeneva Conventions, the guards laugh and say those laws do not apply to enemy combatants.
In 2004, the Tipton Three were released without charge. They were flown back to England where, one year later, they returned to Pakistan for the wedding they had planned to attend in the first place (It had been postponed).
The torture depicted in the film had to be reduced from that claimed by the detainees for the benefit of the actors; according to the actorRiz Ahmed, they were unable to bear the pain and had the shackles on their legs cushioned. They were also unable to remain in the stress positions depicted for more than an hour. The Tipton Three claim to have been left in such positions for up to eight hours.[6]
Filming took place inAfghanistan,Pakistan, andIran, which doubled as Cuba. Mat Whitecross is credited as co-director. He handled most of the interviews with the Tipton Three, the three British citizens who are featured as characters in the film.[3]
The original poster made to promote the film in the United States (shown right) was refused by theMotion Picture Association of America. They said the burlap sack over the detainee's head was considered to be depictingtorture, and inappropriate for young children to see.Howard Cohen of the US-distributorsRoadside Attractions condemned this as "inconsistent" when compared to the MPAA-approved posters for contemporary horror films such asHard Candy orHostel. The final version of the poster showed just the detainee's manacled hands.[7]
The film premiered at the56th Berlin International Film Festival on 14 February 2006. It was broadcast to the UK onChannel 4 on 9 March, attracting 1.6 million viewers,[8] and released on DVD and the Internet the following day. Roadside Attractions, an independent distributor, bought the rights to show the film in the United States in late March.[9]
Iranian authorities asked the film's distributor to release the film in Iran, which was unusual for a Western picture. According to the distributor's president, it ordered four prints instead of the usual one and offered three times the normal amount for fees. As of late April 2006, the film was awaiting official approval; it was expected to be released in late May.[10]
Four of the actors in the film were detained for about an hour by police atLondon Luton Airport after returning from the film's premiere in Berlin.Riz Ahmed stated that during questioning, police asked him whether he had become an actor to furtherthe Muslim struggle, questioned him on his views of theIraq War, verbally abused him, and denied access to his phone.[11] One of the interrogators tried to recruit him as aninformant.[6]
A spokesperson forBedfordshire Police stated that none of the men were arrested, but theTerrorism Act allows the police to "stop and examine people if something happens that might be suspicious." She did not clarify what the actors had done to arouse suspicion.[11]
The film received generally positive reviews. On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 86% of 98 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "A gut-wrenching and riveting docu-drama that serves as a stinging indictment of U.S. military justice in an era of ever-increasing scrutiny."[12]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[13] Michael Winterbottom won theSilver Bear for Best Director at the56th Berlin International Film Festival.
Some commentators criticised Winterbottom for not questioning the decision of the Tipton Three to enter Afghanistan in the first place; a review inThe Times (which gave the film 3 out of 5 stars) refers to this perceived lapse as "an insane lack of cool perspective...The sheer stupidity of these Brits mocks the sincerity of the film. Winterbottom refuses to ask the bleeding obvious. His unquestioning faith in his 'cast' is bewildering."[4]
