Kevin Macdonald on his Guantanamo drama.
Kevin Macdonald directs the true story of a Guantanamo detainee.
From Zero Dark Thirty to The Report, Hollywood depictions of the war on terror all have one thing in common – they’re told from the American perspective. “What we’ve never seen is a man accused of terror, who’s humanised within that system,” director Kevin Macdonald tells Teasers. “This is a story of a really remarkable individual who survived incredible and horrendous treatment, and has emerged with his spirit intact.”
The individual in question is Mohamedou Ould Salahi (A Prophet’s Tahar Rahim), a Mauritanian national who was detained at Guantanamo Bay detention camp for 14 years. During this time, Salahi was subjected to dehumanising “enhanced interrogation” techniques, which he chronicled in Guantánamo Diary, a memoir written and published (in a heavily redacted form) while he was still behind bars.
Salahi’s memoir proved an invaluable resource for Macdonald, who tapped into his documentary background for the film’s gruelling detention-camp sequences. “Where we were absolutely rigorous about accuracy, because it feels so important, is in the physical environment, and the treatment he received in Guantanamo,” Macdonald explains. With records still largely classified, Salahi would describe experiences beyond those recorded in his memoir. There was only one detail Macdonald was forced to leave out.
“In reality, when Mohamedou was tortured, all the guards were wearing Star Wars masks,” Macdonald says. “There’s a great bit in the book when he describes having been beaten up, and he’s on the floor in his cell, and he hears the guards outside arguing about who gets to be Luke Skywalker! Of course, we couldn’t get permission [from Disney] to use those masks...”
The film ventures beyond the openair cages of Guantanamo in telling the parallel stories of Salahi’s defence lawyer Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster), and military prosecutor Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch) – who is seeking the death penalty at the behest of the US government. “We decided early on that we wanted to also have the perspective of the two lawyers. It’s the book ‘plus’,” Macdonald says. “The whole film is trying to say: ‘This is an amazing human story. It’s not a political story.’ And the same goes for Hollander and Couch; they’re just extraordinary, interesting individuals.”
But first and foremost, The Mauritanian is Salahi’s story, and he had some choice advice for Macdonald when it came to committing his ordeal to the screen. “He said to me, ‘I don’t want to make one of those slow, boring, European movies that you people make,’” Macdonald laughs. “‘I want this to be a Hollywood movie that people want to watch.’ So that was ringing in my ears.” JF
ETA | 26 FEBRUARY / THE MAURITANIAN OPENS IN CINEMAS NEXT MONTH.