I saw this movie on a flight. I was not particularly in the mood to watch a movie and was flicking through the channels. However, 2 minutes into this film and I was spellbound.
It is totally mesmerizing the way the story unfolds, the ordeal of this man Murat against whom the Americans had no evidence other than guilt of association and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Disaffected and disenchanted in his hometown of Bremen, and with his life working as a bouncer at a nightclub, Murat turns with all good intent to find deeper meaning in religion - Islam. We are not given the full details, but soon Murat seems to be in the company of shady characters who have more to them than meets the eye.
Ultimately, Murat's 5-year detention and torture become an end in itself. The American interrogator works on him with carrot and stick, to wear him down to confess to anything, so that his detention itself can be justified.
This is an excellent movie and must not be missed. I was reminded of another recent movie "Hannah Arendt" about the trial of Adolph Eichmann. There too, Eichmann was simply doing his job, following orders, for some greater ideological "good". Ironically, this is the role in which the interrogator is cast. All he wants to do is get a confession from Murat so he can complete the job assigned to him and to go back home to his wife and daughter in the US. It is irrelevant to him whether Murat is guilty or innocent.
This movie made me reflect that without deeper thinking, we are doomed as a species. Our technological means for destruction have become too powerful for the tribalistic thinking that we are always good and other people evil. Good and evil resides in each of us. It is only by thinking and examining ourselves that we can tell the Buddha from the Beast within.
It is totally mesmerizing the way the story unfolds, the ordeal of this man Murat against whom the Americans had no evidence other than guilt of association and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Disaffected and disenchanted in his hometown of Bremen, and with his life working as a bouncer at a nightclub, Murat turns with all good intent to find deeper meaning in religion - Islam. We are not given the full details, but soon Murat seems to be in the company of shady characters who have more to them than meets the eye.
Ultimately, Murat's 5-year detention and torture become an end in itself. The American interrogator works on him with carrot and stick, to wear him down to confess to anything, so that his detention itself can be justified.
This is an excellent movie and must not be missed. I was reminded of another recent movie "Hannah Arendt" about the trial of Adolph Eichmann. There too, Eichmann was simply doing his job, following orders, for some greater ideological "good". Ironically, this is the role in which the interrogator is cast. All he wants to do is get a confession from Murat so he can complete the job assigned to him and to go back home to his wife and daughter in the US. It is irrelevant to him whether Murat is guilty or innocent.
This movie made me reflect that without deeper thinking, we are doomed as a species. Our technological means for destruction have become too powerful for the tribalistic thinking that we are always good and other people evil. Good and evil resides in each of us. It is only by thinking and examining ourselves that we can tell the Buddha from the Beast within.
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