The Mauritanian tells the true story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian man alleged to have masterminded the 9/11 attacks. He ends up a prisoner of the US government in Guantanamo Bay prison without being charged, and six years later his case is taken over by Nancy Hollander. The Mauritanian focuses on everything Mohamedou experienced in prison and his lawyer’s efforts to free him.
The Mauritanian (2021) – Movie Review
We super randomly decided to see The Mauritanian after coming across this title on a list of movies coming out in 2021 and seeing Jodie Foster in the trailer. She plays Nancy Hollander, and I generally have very high expectations of Jodie Foster, which she lived up to every time.
Obviously Jodie Foster played absolutely brilliantly this time too, but there were a few other actors besides her who impressed me. Firstly, Tahar Rahim, who plays Mohamedou Ould Slahi did a brilliant job. The man manages to convey in a perfect way all the suffering, distrust, pain, fear, innocence, basically all the feelings. What’s more, the way he goes from almost smug, to confident, then to fear and terror, the way he builds and deconstructs his personality and is dehumanized… it just breaks your soul. That’s all I can say. It breaks your soul.
Also on the acting front, I have to mention Benedict Cumberbatch who did something that a lot of actors, in my opinion, don’t do: break away from Dr. Strange and Sherlock Holmes. In The Mauritanian Benedict Cumberbatch is just Stuart Couch. He’s a navy lawyer in his boots, as Mother Sherry would say. You don’t feel the Marvel superhero, you don’t feel the detective, just the military-specific obedience. Maybe he manages to hide the two of them under the Southern accent (I think :)))).
The movie also stars Shailene Woodley who I semi-loathe from the Divergent series, but here is less annoying than Tris, and Zachary Levi, who I know and love from Chuck, but here is no Chuck at all. Physically he looks different. The attitude is different. It’s na, CIA attitude, what can I say :)))).
Okay, now that we’re done with the actors let’s get back to the story. I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but some things I’m sure you know. Basically I can’t say I was shocked to discover how the Americans treated the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Even torture didn’t shock me, and I think that says a lot about the world we live in. If you watch a movie based on a true story and you are not shocked by the torture in it, there is clearly a problem with the world and what we have come to perceive as the state of affairs. Not normality because it didn’t feel normal to me, but I took it as a state of affairs. Just as I know that our flag is red, yellow and blue, so I know that Americans torture people they consider enemies of the state.
The torture scenes are very explicit, so if you don’t have the stomach for water boarding, beatings, rape, better not watch the movie or skip it. But before you do, consider that one man (actually many more men) actually lived through the stuff. People actually live this stuff. Actually much worse stuff because surely the reality is much, much, much worse. So if we don’t visualize (we are visual beings after all) these things, how can we empathize with people who are going through this, how can we fight against such situations?
SPOILER ALERT for the next two paragraphs!!!!!
What shocked me was the way Stuart Couch was treated when he found out the truth. The fact that he changed his position didn’t surprise me. It seems to me the only common sense thing to do!!!!!!!!! You can’t see a human being treated worse than animals and say… “Yeah, let’s just kill him while we’re at it!” I mean a being with a sane value system that values justice and human life couldn’t do that. But since the world is full of psychopaths in leadership positions (I’m not saying it, the studies say it), I suppose the US Army’s position is understandable and expected.
I didn’t expect to finally see the real Mohamedou Ould Slahi just as I didn’t expect to see that he wrote a book that is also available in Romania, The Guantanamo Diary. However, the fact that he appeared in the film, that I saw what happened to his life, brought a smile to my lips and confirmed to me that a strong spirit can somehow overcome anything it goes through, no matter how horrible. I think that says a lot about us as a species. Maybe that’s why we’ve survived so many years on this planet.
More info about the movie on imdb
