For Macdonald, it’s real life over fiction

One look at Kevin Macdonald’s filmography and it’s clear the director loves telling real life stories. This includes documentaries such as One Day in September (1999) — which won him the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature — and reallife inspired films such as The Last King of Scotland (2006) and the recent The Mauritanian. “Maybe it’s a lack of imagination. I could never do a science fiction,” he says, talking about why he gravitates towards such stories. “I’ll start with some real life aspect, and then build the characters... I feel that real life is far more interesting than any work of fiction,” he adds.

Macdonald says it is a challenge to balance the documentary style of storytelling and the entertainment factor. “I didn’t want to make movies that’ll only be seen by people who already believed what I was trying to say in the films... I always wanted my movies to have an entertainment value as well,” says the Scottish filmmaker.

The Mauritanian is based on the 2015 memoir Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was held for 14 years without charge in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The film stars Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, and Benedict Cumberbatch, among others. “Star power helps more people watch a film,” says the 53-year-old, adding, “I don’t see it as political film, but a humanistic film. The characters played by Jodie, Tahar and Benedict are shown to have great human dignity and decency.” Macdonald shares that he didn’t take any creative liberty in this film, as “we had all the real people involved in the film, including Slahi, and they read the script many times”.