The Road to Guantanamo

Even if a third of what the Tipton Three alleged to have happened to them is true, that should outrage all Americans.

But since there seems to be this belief - perpetuated by Dubya and his cronies - that this administration is somehow doing all this to protect us Americans from the bad guys, there is no outrage that we torture prisoners, hold them without charges or access to counsel, deprive them of civil liberties, all in the name of security. What poppycock!

Michael Winterbottom's film does not answer an important question - exactly what kind of "help" were these three chaps going to provide in Afghanistan? However, what happened to them should embarrass all of us.

Our foreign policy is so dumb - we prohibit trade with and travel to Cuba because it's a communist nation, but have no qualms about trading with or allowing travel to China and Vietnam - and our leaders so hypocritical.

Dubya claims to have freed Iraq from a brutal dictator (who, incidentally, was someone we supported not too long ago, when Dubya's dad was veep, to be exact, and Rummy was shaking hands with Saddam), and yet the people running Iraq today seem no better. They're still torturing people, violent militias carry out retribution killings, and our leaders stick their heads in the sand and say everything's alright.

"The Road to Guantanamo" is shot as a pseudo-documentary. The Tipton Three are portrayed as likable lugs who got caught up in something they never intended. There's an element of black comedy to all this - they keep their senses of humor as they recount the horrible, distasteful and despicable manner in which they're treated.

That we would have had an American pretending to be British to try and coerce these three men doesn't surprise me in the least. After all, it turns out Dubya considered painting the UN logo on a plane to tempt Saddam to shoot it down so we could have a reason to wage war. (Gulf of Tonkin, anyone?)

This is an incredibly difficult, at times harrowing, film to watch. There are those of us who still, foolishly perhaps, believe in the American ideal. A nation that stands for human rights and decent treatment of prisoners. But, I know, reality is far different. We have a Supreme Court justice who scoffs at giving Gitmo prisoners their day in court and a government that believes the Geneva Conventions are antiquated.

We apparently want to show the world we're the beacon of freedom and treat everyone - including alleged criminals - with certain rights, such as due process. And that's what we're trying to instill in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, in practice, we do exactly the opposite.

"The Road to Guantanmo" works because Winterbottom never lets go, never eases up to allow us to feel comfortable. Watching what happens to the Tipton Three is awfully disquieting. It is shameful that we behave like this. What's more worrisome is there seems to be such a lack of outrage among Americans that we're doing this. This administration (and its blowhard allies) have done such a wonderful job convincing Americans that speaking out against their policies is tantamount to being unpatriotic.

I realize many will reject Winterbottom's film because it doesn't cast the United States in all honorable light. It shows how vicious, uncaring and brutal we are, even though our leaders continue to deny everything.

I can only hope that years from now, we will be thoroughly ashamed of how our government treated people in the war on terror, just as we now feel shame for how we treated Japanese-Americans during WWII.

"The Road to Guantanamo" is an important film. I hope now that it has an American distributor, more people will be exposed to it. I am sure the right-wing demagogues will attack it as anti-American and tell us that seeing it would be unpatriotic. (Then again, I don't need OxyContin to function daily.)

The MPAA banned the initial poster for this film because it depicted a man with his wrists tied and a burlap sack over his head and that apparently is too much for our children to see. It's quite alright expose kids to horror-movie posters, but letting them see depictions of some of the despicable acts of our government is bad?

Because of AMPAS' dumb rules, I am certain this film won't be eligible for any Oscars. (It already has been shown on TV in the UK and is available on DVD there.) But "The Road to Guantanamo" must be seen by as many Americans as possible. You watch it and wonder, where has all our decency gone?

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!".

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.

Clean cut, sharp and poignant, this is a documentary of those the British press named the "Tipton Three". Three young Englishmen tell their story of a wedding trip to Pakistan and an unplanned journey into Afghanistan. Victims of circumstance, their tale leads to incarceration in Guantanamo Bay and the apparently shocking treatment that ensued.

Whilst the story is told purely from the perspective of the detainees, there is never any point at which you really doubt the content of the film. In no way does the portrayal of events seem exaggerated or biased so as to evoke a stronger reaction from the audience. In parts sequences seem almost void of emotion in terms of their description, and surprisingly, the effect is to make it even more hard hitting. Not overcooking the trauma means what can only be assumed as a factual depiction of horrifying circumstances comes across quite superbly.

There are points where you can question the realism of the young men's decisions. For example, the point from which they want to leave Kabul back for Pakistan only to find themselves trapped with the Taliban is a little scantily dealt with. This may or may not be wholly accurate, and of course they felt compelled to follow those they felt were standing up for their religion, but from the individual interview footage you can't help feel they were impressionable youths just following their noses, lost in the surreal adventure of it all.

Perfectly paced, the film spends just the right amount of time on each area/location of the story. Winterbottom nicely interweaves footage from British television news to prompt recollection of the perspective from which the public saw the events in Afghanistan. And with a good balance of acted reconstruction and subject interview, both the drama and technicalities feel great. Is there no style or subject this man can't handle?