Posted: Tue., Feb. 14, 2006, 1:00pm PT

Berlin

The Road to Guantanamo

(U.K.)

By Deborah Young

Michael Winterbottom's 'The Road to Guantanamo' takes a disturbing look at what happened to four British Muslims interned by U.S. forces.

A Revolution Films production in association with Screen West Midlands. (International sales: The Works Intl., London.) Produced by Andrew Eaton, Melissa Parmenter. Co-produced by Shahryar Shahbazzadeh. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross. Screenplay, uncredited.

Shafiq - Rizwan Ahmed Ruhel - Farhad Harun Monir - Waqar Siddiqui Asif - Afran Usman

The true story of four British Muslim boys who go to Pakistan for a wedding and end up in Cuba as tortured prisoners of the U.S. Army is retold as a modern horror story in "The Road to Guantanamo." Powerfully co-directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, the film has a winning combo of excitement and topicality that should get it rolling through international theaters, backed by critical support and press coverage.

Far more immediate than the news accounts that have been circulating, this graphic depiction of prisoner abuse at Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta is a punch in the gut meant to shock auds. Yet film also has a very British reticence that keeps it away from simple sensationalism.

For example, there is barely a nod at reports of sexual humiliation and no mention at all of prisoners dying. Nor does it go out of its way to demonize individual soldiers or their superiors, thus leaving Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld, who appear in newsreel footage, holding the buck for blatantly trampling on the Geneva Convention and human rights.

Closest in spirit to Winterbottom's Mideast immigration saga "In This World," this is a much more gripping watch. The actual protags of the story, who spent over two years in Guantanamo Bay before being released as innocent, tell what happened in head shots intercut with a fictional re-creation of events. Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul were 20-year-olds when, together with their friend Monir, left their native England to attend Asif's wedding in Pakistan.

Their adventure begins in September 2001 in Karachi. Having a ball-playing tourist, they head off for the family village to meet the bride. Somehow they decide to take the opportunity to visit neighboring Afghanistan, whose border is wide open. By the time they reach Kandahar, however, events take a dramatic turn as they're shocked and terrified to find the city under U.S. bombardment. They head for Kabul.

The boys, who are very religious, pray in local mosques. Given the white-hot pace of the editing, not every detail is clear but their Muslim friends seem to put them on a van bound for Pakistan; only instead it drives them to Kunduz, a Taliban stronghold in the middle of the mountains. When troops from the Northern Alliance storm the town, Ruhel, Asif and Shafiq mix in with the fleeing Taliban fighters. Monir gets left behind, and is never heard from again.

All this lead-in, intercut with sound bites from newscasts and the accounts of the real-life protagonists, is told at white-hot speed in the film's first 30 minutes. No time is wasted on character sketches and most viewers will never clearly distinguish the four boys. This isn't really a problem, however, in keeping viewers focused on this kind of edge-of-seat storytelling.

Aboard the fleeing Taliban convoy, the boys find themselves in the midst of falling bombs. The dead strew the desert. The survivors surrender.

Here the pace slows for a while as imprisonment begins. Their captors hand them over to the U.S. military and many die aboard a transport container while being taken to Kandahar Air Base. The beatings and interrogations begin.

At first they decide it's wise to hide the fact they're Brits, but when the truth comes out, they are questioned in English about their links to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Handcuffed, hooded and blindfolded, they are flown to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002.

The heart of the film, which will be most talked about, is its graphic depiction of what appears to be round-the-clock torture at Camp X-Ray, the first holding block for detainees. It starts as the boys are locked in open-air cells resembling dog kennels. With the boys' own account to back up the images, these scenes have a sickening realism.

Not allowed to talk to one another, exercise, touch the wire of their cages or protect themselves from the hot sun, they are awoken every hour for a head count. Interrogations at the hands of the CIA, FBI and military personnel involve beatings to extract confessions that they are Al Qaeda fighters. Most diabolical of all the tortures, worthy of a modern-day inquisition or Nazi Germany, is being tied up in stress positions to the floor of cells while being blasted with ear-splitting music, which even a few seconds of re-creation makes torturous for the audience.

The boys' sudden release in 2004 affords a merciful end to the abuse, at least for them, although as Winterbottom and Whitecross remind us, some 500 prisoners are still in Guantanamo.

Playing the four unlucky young Brits, non-pro actors Rizwan Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Waqar Siddiqui and Afran Usman lend a bewildered realism to their characters. Cinematographer Marcel Zyskind and production designer Mark Digby find riveting images not only in the staggering scenery and color of the Afghan, Pakistani and Iranian locations, but in the inhumanly alien orange suits and black hoods the camps' detainees are forced to wear. Molly Nyman and Harry Escott's score is doled out parsimoniously until the final closing moments, when it directs the viewer with its tragic sweep.

Camera (color), Marcel Zyskind; editor, uncredited; music, Molly Nyman, Harry Escott; production designer, Mark Digby; sound (Dolby Digital), Stuart Wilson; casting director, Wendy Brazington; special effects, Mohsen Roozbehani. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (competing), Feb. 14, 2006. Running time: 95 MIN.

With: Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, Shafiq Rasul.