The Mauritanian

Mauritanian citizen Mohamedou Ould Slahi is captured by the US Government in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Suspected of having been involved in aiding or even recruiting the hijackers who steered the planes into the World Trade Center, he spends years at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp without being charged or put on trial. Braving contempt and insult, defence attorney Nancy Hollander takes up Slahi’s case and prepares to face the prosecutor dispatched by the military. Acting giants Jodie Foster and Benedict Cumberbatch lend their charisma to these representatives of justice who, although on opposite sides, ultimately unite in valuing moral decency. With his uncanny ability to hide his characters’ intentions, Tahar Rahim is perfectly cast to portray a man who may as easily be unfairly accused as he may be faking innocence. Slahi had confessed to the crimes of which he was accused. But he did so under torture. Scottish director Kevin Macdonald addresses a dark chapter in American justice in this defiant political thriller based on the 2015 best-selling memoir “Guantánamo Diary” which Slahi wrote while in captivity. The film’s screenwriters have refrained from resolving all the mysteries, thus honouring the importance of examining each case individually – even in the midst of a national outburst of grief and anger. (Berlinale)