Follow the prescribed story?

Mauritanian (2021)
Directed by: Kevin MacDonald

20 years after the attack on the New York Twin Tower, the world is still at a loss of what actually happened on that historical day or the days leading to the event dubbed as the single most significant attack on American soil. People directly or indirectly will probably never have an appropriate closure to all their questions.

The world is given hopscotch information on what is known, what the intelligentsia believes happened and what they want us to think. Along with all is a narrative that the world should follow. Anyone deviating from the said account is deemed a conspiracy theorist.

The same thing is happening with a particular virus that is traced from the labs of Wuhan. With so many conflicting views, the Joe Public is left perplexed between needing to don a mask or not, vaccinate or not, and even trying alternative remedies. But no! The average Joe cannot form an opinion but instead simply obey the directives meted by the authorities, who themselves are clueless and are guided by self-serving politicians and businessmen. The powers-that-be have decided that citizens must be monitored digitally, and non-vaccination meant the loss of certain privileges.

I heard about Nancy Hollander through the 'Advocates The Podcast', a podcast sponsored by Taylor's University in Malaysia. After interviewing many top guns in the legal profession from the world over, the interviewers spoke to this New Mexico lawyer. My curiosity piqued to find out more about her. My research revealed that she is a rabble-rouser, involved in cases defending Guantánamo Bay detainees and a military whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, who leaked classified information to Wikileaks. Yes, she received her law degree from the same place as Saul Goodman! I also found out that a film had been made on her endeavour to free a Guantánamo inmate, and Jodie Foster was cast to play her. And here it is.

In the frenzy to put a name to the mastermind who orchestrated the 9/11 attack, a Mauritanian national, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, was incarcerated without a charge for 14 years. Thanks to the passing of the Freedom of Information Act, Hollander, as his defence counsel, was able to scrutinise the day-to-day abuses inflicted upon Slahi. Slahi was able to describe the sexual molestations, the threats to his mother, the waterboarding torture, etcetera in letters which later became the first book (Guantánamo Diary) by a Guantánamo prisoner.

The movie shows what an independent judiciary system can do to open the maggots festering in a system that is supposed to take care of its citizens. In the name of national security and the need to keep information away from the prying eyes of the enemy of the state, injustice is justified. An emotional movie with a stellar performance by its main characters. Benedict Cumberbatch appeared as the conscientious Prosecutor, and Tahar Rahim (seen as Sobhraj before) plays Slahi. 4/5.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Gory historic details or gore fest?

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