Fighting for freedom

Benedict Cumberbatch, Tahar Rahim and Jodie Foster star in a powerful true story about a tortured Guantánamo Bay prisoner

- ELAINE REILLY

A shocking true story comes to the screen this week in Amazon Prime Video film The Mauritanian, starring The Serpent’s Tahar Rahim as a wrongly accused terrorist suspect imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay for 14 years without charge.

Directed by Oscar-winning film-maker Kevin Macdonald, the drama – which has been nominated for Best Film at the upcoming BAFTAs – opens two months after the tragic deaths of almost 3,000 people in the 9/11 terror attacks.

As the US seeks justice against those involved, engineer Mohamedou Ould Slahi (played by Rahim) is seized by authorities in his home country of Mauritania, in West Africa.

Accused of being a key recruiter for the deadly al-Qaeda attack, he is taken to Guantánamo Bay, the US’ military detention centre in Cuba, and subjected to brutal interrogation and torture as investigators try to force him into making a confession.

LEGAL BATTLE

When his situation comes to the attention of US criminal defence lawyer Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster), she volunteers to represent Mohamedou in court and prove the US government lacks evidence to detain him.

‘Nancy feels like it’s her mission and her duty to uphold the Constitution and that everybody deserves a defence,’ explains Foster, 58, who has already won a Golden Globe for her performance as Hollander.