THE GUANTANAMO TRAP (Thomas Selim Wallner, Germany/Canada/Switzerland). 90 minutes. Some subtitles. Rating: NNN
If you’ve never given much thought to the legal and moral nightmare that is the United States detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The Guantanamo Trap is a good place to start.
Thomas Selim Wallner’s dry, methodical approach may lack the flash of previous Gitmo docs, but he lays out the story clearly and without any unnecessary posturing.
The film examines the extra-legal prison facility through interviews with Diane Beaver, who authored the infamous memo sanctioning torture Matthew Diaz, who blew the whistle on the harsh treatment of detainees, and Spanish lawyer Gonzalo Boye, who brought the suit against the Bush Administration for its attempts to cover up the rampant violation of human rights.
But it’s the story of Murat Kurnaz that makes the biggest impact. A German Muslim wrongly arrested in Pakistan and sold to the American military as a high-value target, he’s still haunted by the five years he spent in detention. Kurnaz comes to represent the dozens of other faceless captives still held at Guantanamo. He was just lucky enough to have people who fought for him on the outside.
