ROAD TO GUANTANOMO

US, 2006, 95 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Michael Winterbottom and Matt Whitecross.

After a screening at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the award for Direction, The Road to Guantanomo was given a cinema release, a television screening and DVD distribution within a few weeks. It is well worth catching.

Michael Winterbottom has had a prolific output during the last ten years including Jude, Wonderland, The Claim and, most recently, A Cock and Bull Story. However, he has also ventured into the political and social areas with his Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), a picture of an American journalist experiencing war in the Balkans and his Berlin Golden Bear winner, In This World. In This World traced the journey of a young Afghan refugee from his life in the camps, across Iran into Europe and his getting to England. It was brief, documentary-like and filmed in authentic locations.

Winterbottom and his co-director, Matt Whitecross, have created a film that combines documentary style with feature film storytelling, all the more vivid because of this. As might be expected, it takes a stance very critical of the Americans and their treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and, finally, in the camp at Guantanomo Bay. Its partisan attitudes have been supported by reports from Guantanomo and reports about it, especially from the United Nations.

The film takes on the story of three young British men from Tipton who went to Pakistan for a wedding. They were not saints and some had police records for petty offences. They ventured into Afghanistan out of some kind of solidarity (which critics of their story say is at least imprudent but suspect more sinister motives) and soon found themselves under fire with the American invasion. They tried to get back to Pakistan (one of their friends disappeared) but, instead, found themselves among the Taliban prisoners.

The film re-enacts the treatment they received. At times it is quite brutal. They are treated with deep suspicion. Psychological pressure is put on them, naming them as terrorists, forcing them to confess. After these camps, they are blindfolded and sent to Cuba, to Guantanomo. Again, the film spends a great deal of time showing the bullying (to say the least), the isolation and psychological pressure, aspects of contempt by guards of their Muslim beliefs and continued aggressive interrogations. It should be said that some guards are presented as more humane.

In assessing the reality of American treatment and accusations of brutality, we remember the trials of military personnel for torture in Baghdad. What seems very much to the point is a reminder of how recruits are trained in the US – think the first part of Full Metal Jacket, think Jarhead. American authorities put their own men through tough, humiliating training where they are sworn at, mocked and put under severe physical and psychological pressure. This training becomes a model and pattern for dealing with others, especially when force is considered to be necessary.

The three were eventually released from Guantanomo and are free. They themselves are interviewed throughout the film and we finally see them at the wedding in Pakistan.

Topical, sobering and challenging.

1.A topical film of 2006? Impact? Distribution? Awards?

2.The work of Michael Winterbottom, his emphasis on war and social problems: Welcome to Sarajevo, In This World? His perspective on the Middle East?

3.The documentary style, cinema verite, interviews, war footage, re-enactment, politicians? The blend of all these elements?

4.Audience response: intellectual, emotional? Information about the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanomo Bay? The American stances? British stances? The treatment of prisoners, attitude towards the Taliban? Prison and torture?

5.Abuse of human rights, treatment of prisoners and the quality of society in the way that it administers punishment? Physical torture? Deprivation? Psychological torture? Poor conditions? The nature of interrogations? The good cop, bad cop technique? Lying to trap interrogated prisoners? Demands made on them?

6.The relevance of the film to the West and its attitudes towards the Middle East? The West and Islam?

7.The four central men and their stories? Their age, Pakistani background, living in Birmingham, in Tipton? Their ordinary way of life, not practising Islam strictly? Families, jobs? Trouble with the police? The arranged wedding in Pakistan, the groom going? His friends deciding to go to support him? The spirit of their travels? The time in Karachi, enjoying the atmosphere? The interviews with them after their ordeal? Their comments, memories, retrospect?

8.Their decision to go to Afghanistan, their reasons, their sense of Pakistani support, trying to help, doing little in fact, crossing the border, trying to do some work? One being sick? The bombings after 9/11? Their being caught in the atmosphere, their fear, the escape, running to get on the truck, the man sick in the bus, the arrests and their treatment?

9.The re-enactments of their ordeal, their story? Making their story more credible for the audience?

10.Their experience as prisoners, together, the treatment, the interrogations, by the British, by the Americans? The presumptions that they were guilty? The nature of the torture? The long periods? The pressure to confess?

11.The long time, the hunger, the cold, sickness, being able to pray or not? The guards, especially at Guantanomo, and their spurning of religious customs for Muslims?

12.The portrait of the marines, memories of the stern way in which they were trained, abusive? Their applying these techniques to the prisoners? The ordinary men in the marines, shouting orders, battering people, the officers, the orderlies? An atmosphere of brutality? The guards in Guantanomo – and some of the sympathetic guards, talking, helping, asking to hear the rap song?

13.The transition to Guantanomo, the blindfolds, the plane? The situation in Guantanomo Bay, the nature of the prison? The comments by President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld? The men being given numbers, the nature of the cells, squatting outside, the continued interrogations, the British, the American woman?

14.The realisation that errors had been made in the files? Still keeping prisoners in Guantanomo? Their being better fed, reading?

15.The aftermath, the interviews for this film? The men and their judgments, the change in their lives, facing the future?

16.The return to Pakistan for the wedding, the scenes of a wedding and joy? Some hope?

17.The film as a contribution to understanding, change and reform?