The Mauritanian

The Mauritanian (2021) is based on Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s bestseller Guantánamo Diary, a record of his fourteen years in the US prison at Guantánamo. 

Terrorism is evil and that is unequivocally true of 9/11. However, one of the awful side effects of evil is that it too often generates an ongoing cycle of injustice. Under pressure from the US, Slahi was picked up by the Mauritanian police and handed over eventually to the US authorities, who extradited him to Guantánamo. Alas, his time there coincided with Donald Rumsfeld’s approval of “enhanced interrogation techniques.” This searing narrative exposes the profound moral ambiguities of Guantánamo and the harrowing experience there of Slahi.  

Jodie Foster, as we have come to expect, provides an excellent performance as his lawyer, outflanked only by Tahar Rahim’s deeply human portrayal of Slahi. As is common knowledge, prisoners at Guantanámo were held in inhuman circumstances without being charged or brought to trial, and torture was pervasive. 

Stuart Couch was the military lawyer appointed to prosecute Slahi. A Christian, there is a riveting moment in the film where a church baptism confronts Couch with his responsibility to renounce evil and injustice. A reminder, and we do need it, of the power of ritual and the sacraments. 

In the conclusion we see actual footage of Slahi and are also told that the USA has never apologised for the abuses of Guantánamo. Indeed, some forty prisoners are still held there. The eruption of evil in terrorism is truly terrible, but so too is it when the abused become abusers. A must-see movie.