Road to Guantanamo, The

Aroview: A searing, politically pertinent docu-drama from the prolific Michael Winterbottom (w/ co-dir. Whitecross), reenacting with gut-wrenching ferocity the ordeal of the 'Tipton Three', a trio of British Muslims inadvertently caught in the chaos of war-torn Afghanistan, and were subsequently captured and wrongly imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for three years.

Interweaving commentary from the real detainees with an intensely realised, often grueling reconstruction of events, this is far from easy viewing, but compelling as a blunt-edged, if rather simplistic indictment of George W. Bush's war on terror. Torture and interrogation sequences form the bulk of the uncomfortable experience that offers some glimmers of hope, but mostly raw sadism as a by-product of America's pervading climate of fear.

NZ International Film Festival 2006

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