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The Road To Guantanamo (2006): In Cinemas-Footage Included
A John Doe Cinema Review
The ROAD TO GUANTANAMO
Poster: In Cinemas November 16
Morally outraged, Michael Winterbottom has always been a socially minded director (Welcome to Sarajevo, With or With Out You, In This World, The Claim, 9 Songs). Taking what he learned from making the docu-drama 24hr Party People, he now turns his sight to a pivotal issue of the new millennium.
This is the true story of the Tipton Three (Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul) a group of English travellers that were in Pakistan for a friends wedding just after 9/11. Some might say lacking forethought or common sense they cross the border to Afghanistan and in the wrong place at the wrong time were mistaken for Taliban.
Captured by the U.S, shipped to Guantanamo Bay and held for two years as suspected terrorists. Never charged, they had to suffer the inhumanity of incarceration and were treated like traitors while behind bars.
Told through face to face interviews with the trio, the extremes of the story are re-enacted before our eyes by actors. Maintaining an authentic feeling through out we experience the harrowing journey these three individuals had endure at the hands of a free and democratic captor.
John Doe Says:
I was fortunate enough to see this one at the Sydney Film festival earlier this year and have since purchased the DVD from the U.S.
This is a very important film about the hypocritical events that are shaping our paranoid futures. Shot entirely on DV camera, the documentary style lensing helps you to become emotionally invested in the tragic story.
The Tipton three are never presented as being without sin nor does the film claim that the idea of them being collaborators is beyond the realm of possibility.
Their guilt or innocence is not explored, instead in no uncertain terms the agenda is to raise questions about the two faced philosophies and methods employed by the U.S to combat terrorism.
I found myself empathising with the three as they painfully tell of their mistreatment and without due process their completely illegal imprisonment, akin to a fascist state.
With no proof of guilt they are held without counsel, repeatedly beaten, interrogated and humiliated.
Fact is, very few if any of the prisoners in the Guantanamo detention centre have been tried or convicted.
Committing the same crimes against humanity and ignoring the democratic freedom that they are supposedly fighting to maintain, this is the subject under scrutiny. An essential argument that must be addressed and the film does an admirable job of showing, not telling what is wrong with the current system.
Incredibly along the way this becomes a story of hope and survival, an inspirational look at the human spirit, punctuated by the fact that the three are not suing the U.S for the psychological and physical damage they inflicted.
View the first 10 minutes of the film below.
This is the true story of the Tipton Three (Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul) a group of English travellers that were in Pakistan for a friends wedding just after 9/11. Some might say lacking forethought or common sense they cross the border to Afghanistan and in the wrong place at the wrong time were mistaken for Taliban.
Captured by the U.S, shipped to Guantanamo Bay and held for two years as suspected terrorists. Never charged, they had to suffer the inhumanity of incarceration and were treated like traitors while behind bars.
Told through face to face interviews with the trio, the extremes of the story are re-enacted before our eyes by actors. Maintaining an authentic feeling through out we experience the harrowing journey these three individuals had endure at the hands of a free and democratic captor.
"Welcome to America, land of the free, home of the brave. Would you like fries with that?"
John Doe Says:
I was fortunate enough to see this one at the Sydney Film festival earlier this year and have since purchased the DVD from the U.S.
This is a very important film about the hypocritical events that are shaping our paranoid futures. Shot entirely on DV camera, the documentary style lensing helps you to become emotionally invested in the tragic story.
The Tipton three are never presented as being without sin nor does the film claim that the idea of them being collaborators is beyond the realm of possibility.
Their guilt or innocence is not explored, instead in no uncertain terms the agenda is to raise questions about the two faced philosophies and methods employed by the U.S to combat terrorism.
I found myself empathising with the three as they painfully tell of their mistreatment and without due process their completely illegal imprisonment, akin to a fascist state.
With no proof of guilt they are held without counsel, repeatedly beaten, interrogated and humiliated.
Fact is, very few if any of the prisoners in the Guantanamo detention centre have been tried or convicted.
Committing the same crimes against humanity and ignoring the democratic freedom that they are supposedly fighting to maintain, this is the subject under scrutiny. An essential argument that must be addressed and the film does an admirable job of showing, not telling what is wrong with the current system.
Incredibly along the way this becomes a story of hope and survival, an inspirational look at the human spirit, punctuated by the fact that the three are not suing the U.S for the psychological and physical damage they inflicted.
View the first 10 minutes of the film below.
Visit the official site here, and there is some interesting information here as well.
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