DAILY DISPATCH FROM BERLIN: Personal And Political, Winterbottom’s “Guantanamo” Jolts Berlinale by Eugene Hernandez (February 14, 2006)
In Berlin today, talking about the new film "The Road to Guantanamo" are (left to right) Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Mat Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom
A timely new British film about the horrors of the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is poised to be the buzz film of the Berlinale this year. “The Road to Guantanamo” screened for press this afternoon at the Berlin International Film Festival and will have its official world premiere tonight at the Berlinale Palast in Potsdamer Platz. The provocative new film is debuting at the festival on the same day that a draft report from the United Nations made news around the world, accusing the U.S. of torture at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and calling for either trials or the release of detainees there. Get the latest news, buzz and iPOP photos from the Berlinale in indieWIRE’s special Berlin International Film Festival section. Arriving for a press conference at the Grand Hyatt in Berlin to significant applause and multiple cheers of “bravo” and “great film,” directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross sat alongside Shafiq Rasul and Ruhel Ahmed, the subjects of their devastating new film, “The Road To Guantanamo.” The story of the now famous “Tripton Three,” Winterbottom and Whitecross’ new movie blends news images, documentary footage, and dramatic re-creations of the lad’s experiences as detainees for more than two years in the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo. Traveling to Pakistan for a wedding shortly after 9/11, the three young British men—Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, and Shafiq Rasul—eventually made their way to Afghanistan to try to aid bombing victims there. But, through an unfortunate sequence of events, they were eventually mistaken as members of the Taliban, rounded up, and then tortured and held for more than two years, despite a lack of proof of their terrorist ties. They were eventually released but have yet to gain an official acknowledgement of their innocence. Calling Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba an “illegal prison” during a press conference today, British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom has created a powerful, heartbreaking film that, by telling the story of three people, seeks to expose a situation in the hopes of instigating change.
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In response to “jakec”
The beheadings were carried out on individuals who choose to go to Iraq and to die for Bush, Cheney and Halliburton! They went to occupied Iraq, in-spite of constant warnings from the Iraqi resistance, to serve the occupation forces and were either spies or mercenaries (so-called Contractors) for the U.S. military. Furthermore, these people were not captured on the streets of New York or Ohio but on the streets of Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah (remember the genocide in Fallujah) killing or facilitating the killing of Iraqi men, women and children and destroying Iraq’s infrastructure beyond that of the American imposed Sanctions.
This film is long overdue and it only shows a very tiny window into America’s vast world of atrocities in many places like Vietnam, Korea, South America, Iraq, (1991), Somalia, Afghanistan and now Iraq (2003-present) to mention a few. Of course, not to mention the CIA’s long record of covert activities since the 1960s including coup-de-etas, assassinations, kidnappings, etc.
More than 90% of Muslims and many Western independent thinkers and analysts believe that the 9/11 attacks were plotted and carried out, not by the 19 victims on those flights but, by the extreme right neo-cons in the U.S., which includes Christian and Jewish Zionists, and involving agents from a foreign government which I will leave to you to figure out!. The American people have been mislead, deceived and lied to ever since Bush and Cheney occupied the White House. The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has been planned long before September 11, 2001. Similarly, the U.S. government and media started beating the drums of war against Iraq two years before the 1991 aggression.
Educate yourself and read some of the post-911 literature and analysis published on the Internet, not in the main American media that is controlled and affiliated with the neo-con (neo-Fascist) Zionist Evangelical Republicans. Wake up, Be smart and do your own independent search and analysis instead of relying on the neo-cons and their controlled media that keep deceiving the public and feeding them lies.
I’ve never posted anything on this sight before, but I have noticed a pattern in reactions by “jakec” that inspired me to ask: why are you so cranky, man? filmmakers choose stories that spark an interest in them for whatever reason. Artists are NOT required to show ALL sides of an issue. As Winterbottom says in the piece, he is just trying to tell the story of three people, not the whole general story. Jakec you need to chill!!!!
I’ve never posted anything on this sight before, but I have noticed a pattern in reactions by “jakec” that inspired me to ask: why are you so cranky, man? filmmakers choose stories that spark an interest in them for whatever reason. Artists are NOT required to show ALL sides of an issue. As Winterbottom says in the piece, he is just trying to tell the story of three people, not the whole general story. Jakec you need to chill!!!!
I find it interesting that these two film producers believed what they were told and wrote a film on this information. I also wonder why they wrote about Guantanamo instead of writing about the Beheadings etc etc that went on by the other side. These guys may have been detained but they are still alive. I hope they will do a film about the other extreme or are they only interested in their aggenda??????