It’s with incredible pride that we bring you the uncensored version of the one sheet for Michael Winterbottom’s stunningly important film, The Road to Guantanamo. The little elf who slipped this one into our inbox didn’t elaborate, but my assumption is that the MPAA isn’t going to look favorably on an image of a man being maltreated in this way on a movie poster. Maybe someone should send the MPAA down to Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta so they can bring their disapproval to bear on the good old American soldiers and brass involved in illegally detaining and torturing people who have no real connection to the War on Terra.
I’ve seen The Road to Guantanamo, and it’s a marvelous blending of documentary and narrative (might this be included in the exciting neofactualist category? Possibly!) that tells the all-too true, all-too terrifying story of three English Muslims who travel to the Middle East for a wedding and end up captured by the US Army. They’re beaten, tortured and accused of heinous crimes they never committed, and eventually taken to Guantanamo Bay. Their ordeal lasted years, and it’s a case study in the mindless, evil brutality that is being unleashed by the current out of control administration. Even people who believe that the War on Terra demands strong (unconstitutional) measures will be appalled at the sheer idiocy that keeps these boys locked up and costs so much money and face for the United States.
The worst part – these are just three of the stories of the detainees. There are hundreds more, all likely with similar stories, as not one person held there since 2002 has yet been convicted of any crime. The good news is that the three Britons – Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul – last week won the right to sue the US for violation of religious rights. If this all reads like a rant, that’s because it is. There’s no justification for a nation based on freedom and justice to be involved in a gulag like this.
The Road to Guantanamo is opening in limited release in the US on June 23rd. Expect more coverage from us, and a full review, in the weeks to come.
