Review: The Mauritanian Gives a Human Face to the Horrors of Guantanamo Bay thequint.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thequint.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LONDON: There were some raised eyebrows when the nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards included no mention of Kevin Macdonald’s legal drama “The Mauritanian” but perhaps fewer than there may have been, given that the COVID-19 pandemic has (as in so many cases) restricted its wider release to streaming services, so audiences outside of America only now have the chance to see Macdonald’s adaption of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s 2015 memoir “Guantánamo Diary.”
“The Mauritanian” stars Tahar Rahim as Slahi, and chronicles his 14-year captivity in the infamous US military prison, where he was held without charge. When defense attorneys Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) learn of Slahi’s situation, they find themselves facing down tenacious military prosecutor Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the might (not to mention the ability to drag its heels) of the US government.
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Benedict Cumberbatch says he plans to call on Joe Biden to close Guantanamo Bay after studying the prison for his latest movie The Mauritanian.
The actor produced the drama and portrays Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch. The Mauritanian is based on the memoir by real-life Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was suspected of organizing the 9/11 attacks and spent 14 years at the detention center without charge until he was ultimately released in 2016.
Speaking to The Independent, Cumberbatch explained America’s controversial relationship with Guantanamo Bay in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, ultimately arguing that he feels it’s beyond time to close down the facility.
Benedict Cumberbatch Says He Thinks He May Have Been Patient Zero For COVID-19
The star fell ill while filming The Mauritanian, a drama about a man detained in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years, at the end of 2019.
Benedict Cumberbatch has opened up about not being sure whether he contracted COVID-19 and his role in a film about a man who was detained at Guantanamo Bay without charge for 14 years.
“I was incredibly ill, to the point that when all this COVID stuff suddenly broke in the new year, I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, was I actually patient zero?’” Cumberbatch told The Independent’s James Mottram in an interview published Saturday. “I was so ill it was borderline pneumonia.”
Marvel’s
Avengers star Benedict Cumberbatch says he wants President Joe Biden to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center after working on the film
The Mauritanian.
Doctor Strange star told
The Independent about his desire to speak with Biden on the issue.
The detention center, situated in a small section of Cuba, was established after the brutal terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to hold accused terrorists caught making plans to attack the U.S.
Cumberbatch criticized the reported $13 million per detainee per year and the lack of prosecutions that have come out of the facility. “It is a huge spend. It’s the most expensive prison on earth,” Cumberbatch said. “And what are the results? Where are the prosecutions? That’s just being really brutally economic about it, it just doesn’t work.”