The Road to Guantanamo

anyone still thinking that the war on terrorism is in defense of democracy and civil human rights must, in the light of what is documented in this film, reevaluate his/her position. it doesn't matter why these young men went to Afganistan - the way they are treated by the US government is appalling and i simply cannot understand how anyone claiming to be a civilized human being, can defend the crimes committed by US military personnel, as documented in this film. ...and remember - these 3 guys were lucky - they are British nationals and this means someone is looking out for them - their families live in GB and they have the possibility of putting pressure on the British government, but think of all the nameless Afghans and Pakistanis who are held by the US and their allies under even worse conditions.

brilliant film BTW!

The film provides an excellent portrayal of the horrors that the US and the UK have gone to in the pursuit of the War on Terror, and also a damning indictment of the workings of the minds that are behind this "War". I feel that the film may well deserve the acclaim it gets purely on the basis of the bravery that it cast and direction have shown in making it- their freedoms and possibly their careers may be impinged upon as a result.

This fact was well illustrated in the recent incident that I feel brings the reality of Guantanamo and the War on Terror closer to home. It was documented that the cast, returning to Luton having picked up the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, were taken aside and questioned by police. In a haunting piece of irony, the mini-detention at Luton airport served as a mirror of Guantanamo. The actors were racially insulted (a policewoman telling one actor-"I'll get my male colleague to handle you- you Muslims don't like dealing with women do you?"); physically provoked (a policeman wrestling one of the actor's phones out of his hand to inspect his phone book); denied any legal recourse (they were not allowed to call their lawyers); insulted (one of the actors was called a "f****r" by a police officer); and generally treated by the supposed arbiters of justice in such a way befitting of people who know they are above the law and thus permit themselves to do what they like. Such occurrences are now commonplace in the life of the Tipton Three. Will it be the same for the actors who had the courage to play them?

The Road To Guantanamo a film which was screened on Channel 4 last night is a harrowing tale of injustice committed by the American Government under the guise of the war on terror.

Three innocent men, (actually four to begin with),childhood friends all British, 3 of Pakistani origin and one Bangladeshi ( not Arab as described by IronicFilmReference review) set off to Pakistan for a holiday and to attend the wedding of one of the 4 men.

With time on their hands before the wedding, stupidly they decide to go to Afghanistan to help with the relief effort at a time when the US is gearing up for an invasion.

When they realise the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan, they try to get back to Pakistan, instead they get taken deeper into the combat zone and there the 4 men from Tipton, became the Tipton 3 as one of their Friends (Monir) gets separated (and is never seen again).

Taken into custody by The US forces after surviving near starvation for a month at the hands of the Northern Alliance what should of been the end of their ordeal turns out to be just the beginning.What emerges next through interviews with the men and re-enactment of events is a tale of unbelievable treatment of the three men and incompetence at the hands of the US authorities.Routine humiliation and torture both physical and psychological in Afghanistan before they are sent to Guantanamo Bay, where they some how endure the same regime for a further 2 years.

This is an unmissable film/documentary of the above mentioned events which will have you question the freedoms and rights you enjoy so freely and how in this day and age the world is so silent on the injustice and blatant disregard for human rights that is taking place in Guantanamo Bay.Whatever else you do in 2006, watching this film should be at the top of your list.

Perhaps there is more than one Michael Winterbottom. The history of cinema is full of Big Reputations built on very short CVs, but this guy must be working on several projects simultaneously and anyone lucky to get close enough will be caught up in the slipstream. He's the I K Brunel of the silver screen. However, Whitecross must have handled the bulk of the work here, and a lucky few at the Bristol Watershed, England, will have met him with the three British protagonists of this adventure (16th March), who relate their experiences intercut with actors and archive footage in what may prove to be the seminal event of 21st Century cinema. It's certainly the most powerful experience you are liable to have in the theatre. This reviewer has not seen it on TV, nor downloaded it to PC, but my guess is that it will retain some of its force. Undoubtedly much of this force is because it's a true story, and one which connects with us all, through our governments' recreation of the Cold War strategy for slicing up the world into areas of influence, and using the artifice of 'bogeymen' (Pinkos, Martians, Yankees, Muslims) to keep the populace down. But the secret of great art is to make it look easy. In lesser hands this could have been an exercise in widescreen bathos. And recognising the gift from real life to the film maker in the scene where one of the guards exposes his cultural commonality with one of these 'dangerous terrorists', asking him to perform a rap, is just one example. The confusion of Afghanistan and Pakistan as the bombs fall and the invaders take over is totally convincing. An eyes-open nightmare full of dust and colliding waves of refugees followed by the interminable grind of terror, insults from thugs and 'cultured' interrogators, boredom and torture suffered by the captives in a situation that Kafka and Orwell could never have imagined. This is a trite comparison, I know, but violence is trite, and banal. If you see any one film this year, make it this one. CLIFF HANLEY

The Tipton Three were there Britons of south Asian origin, mixed up in petty crime. Sufficiently Paskistani in identity to visit that country and feel reasonably at home, they were also sufficiently British to imagine it would be a good idea to extend their trip to Afghanistan, just to see what they would find. What they did find, of course, was war, the of death a friend, and then, just when they might have thought they were safe, torture and imprisonment at the hands of the Americans, first in Afghanistan and then in Guantanamo Bay. Michael Winterbottom's film is shot in many of the original locations, reconstructing their story: the reconstruction is accompanied by interviews with the men (in which they describe what happened, with little embellishment) and clippings from news stories at the time (a minority of which display what in retrospect seems outrageous bias in favour of the agreed western spin on the war). There's an element of black comedy in the way a group of uppity British lads somehow find themselves at war; but when the torture begins, it's hard not to get angry at the systematic disregard for the human rights of men who had been convicted of no crime. Also hard to escape is the sheer bone-headedness of their interrogators: convinced that their suspects work for "Al-Quaeda", which they seem to conceive of as some kind of unitary and institutional organisation, the Americans have no effective idea of what to do except to put this proposition to their suspects ad nauseam until they agree, with intermittent torture to ram home the point. That a confession in these circumstances would have means precisely nothing does not seem to have occurred to them. In fact, the men didn't break, which was presumably easier because they had no idea of the sort of information the Americans wanted from them. But (except at the very end), there were heroic acts of defiance in the fashion of the Hollywood prison movie either; against overwhelming force, such behaviour isn't really on.

I would have liked to see the suspects called to explain themselves a little further when they say they went to Afghansistan to "help", but overall, their stories make a grim kind of sense, and they lost three years of their lives for a foolish expedition. Now they are Muslims in a way they never were before, having gained strength through their religion in their darkest hour. This is an important and absorbing film, which as with the same director's 'In This World', reminds you of how large the world is. And also makes you want to scream: "Not in My Name!".