ON SCREEN Lawyer up
THERE’S AWARDS BUZZ AROUND JODIE FOSTER AND SHAILENE WOODLEY’S NEW FILM, STARRING THE PAIR AS DREAM TEAM LAWYERS TAKING ON THE SYSTEM
‘The strength of this film is the human story,’ says Jodie Foster of The Mauritanian, a legal thriller based on the bestselling memoir Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Salahi. It was published in captivity, while Salahi was held at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years without charge or trial. ‘The beautiful thing about him is his love and vulnerability. When you discover that in the film, it makes you understand what the US was after 9/11.’ This is a human story on both sides. Taken from his home in Mauritania, Africa, in 2002, Salahi was tortured on suspicion of terrorism. His only allies – lawyers Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) – engaged in a desperate and controversial pursuit of justice, which eventually revealed a shocking, far-reaching conspiracy. ‘Nancy is a person who was born to challenge the system,’ says Foster. ‘And our institutions need challenges to serve an ideal of justice.’
Also starring Benedict Cumberbatch as military prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch, Tahar Rahim plays Salahi with award-worthy intensity: ‘I was blown away when I watched him,’ says Foster. Directed by The Last King of Scotland’s Kevin Macdonald, The Mauritanian incites much-needed compassion for the Muslim experience in a war on terror-era America reeling from fear of attacks. ‘That fear turned from morality towards a reactive, misguided, vengeful cruelty,’ says Foster. ‘That’s why the rule of law is so important. It tests our humanity by following a higher standard than our self-interest.’
The Mauritanian is due for release on 26 February
“His only allies engaged in a desperate pursuit of JUSTICE”