Road to Guantanamo (2006)

In the world of cinema we are sometimes lost amidst the artificiality of what we see, Winterbotom’s pseudo documentary is a jolting reminder of what the real world is like for many. This is the story of a bunch of kids with high curiosity and an apetite for adventure who travel from their native England to their traditional home in Pakistan, only to, in all their naivety, also step into neighbouring Afghanistan to extend a helping hand to people who they perceive as not too different from themselves. Unfortunately for them, the war on terror commences and they are mistaken for terrorist aides and imprisoned, eventually finding their way to the infamous Guantanamo prison in Cuba. Made in a very similar manner to the equally remarkable ’In this world’, except with a voyage that works in reverse, the movie is, quite frankly and in all honesty, electrifying. It has the power of a thriller and the realism of a news coverage and these aspects together lend it an wide eyed authenticity that was lacking in say, last years ’Syriana’.

Watching the film (for that is what it must be considering it employs the services of actors to tell the story of the interviewed Tripton three ala ’Touching the void’ its amazing how happy the Americans were at winning a war fighting farmers and sheep herders. Winterbotoom also constantly shows us the irony of news coverage at the time claiming how the victors had in their captivity really dangerous Al Qaeda personnel, when all they really had were disillusioned, aimless youths. Because this is based on a true story, it isn’t giving away anything by revealing that the 3 were eventually released when no evidence was found against them - without an apology. But what they had to endure, and what we bare witness to through the work of a maverick filmaker, is the unflinching truth, made without the excess baggage of budgets or stars, shunning any need for boxoffice returns or studio backing.

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