Movies focus on Rendition

A fabric bag is firmly pulled over the detainees face. He is tight down, his feet higher than his head. Water is poured over his face. A drowning simulation, designed to make him talk during his interrogation. Just a scene from a film?

So called “Water-boarding” is depicted in three recent films. Gavin Hood’s star studded Hollywood film Rendition, James Threapleton’s low budget, realist drama Extraordinary Rendition, and the very first episode of ITV’s new television drama The Whistleblowers. Threapleton’s stuntman, who is apparently used to drowning experiences (!) could not take the drowning simulation torture for more than a few seconds and refused to ever do it again. He could do that, for him it was indeed just a scene from a film. The background though, is much more serene. Something called Extraordinary Rendition has forced its way into the entertainment industry. This sensitive subject is explored and explained in the three very different films.

I was explained the meaning of this somewhat technical expression by James Threapleton when he presented his film at the international film festival in Locarno this summer. It was one of the disappointingly few highlights at last year’s festival edition, which was shamefully overlooked in the awards but made a lasting impression nonetheless. The film begins with the finding of a heavily wounded man in London. In back flashes we hear how Zaafir ended up there. The well integrated young college tutor gets abducted in town and finds himself facing interrogation and torture in a far away country. He spends horrifying weeks outside of any justice system available to him because he is suspected to be a terrorist.

Countries like the UK or the USA do not torture. It is forbidden by their constitution. Neither is it allowed to extradite people if it is likely that they will undergo torture in their home country. Surely these are laws that we should be proud to abide by. Unfortunately there is a way around them, which is Rendition. Terror suspects are flown out of the country in question and brought to a place that does use torture. This then can be termed collaboration of secret services. Of course this system is prone to heavy mistakes and the new films concentrate on these.

While Extraordinary Rendition focuses on the victim, Gavin Hood’s film focuses on the people and institutions surrounding it. The ice cold CIA agent, the troubled American witnessing the interrogation, the pregnant wife fighting for her disappeared husband, the young senatorial assistant who wants to help until his career is endangered, the leading interrogator and his run away daughter and her boyfriend who gets involved with militant Islamist groups. The film may be overloaded but its intentions are nonetheless the right ones.

It may be a streak of luck that all three films are very good. It’s a tightrope walk between informing and exploiting and all of them balance it well. Film has always been a good political medium and it has to be allowed to be taken seriously as such. The new wave of politically driven Hollywood films like Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, Michael Clayton or Lambs for Lions have resuscitated the American mainstream. They are not radical films, they are glossy and entertaining and they have to be, they are, after all, Hollywood movies. But the tone has become more stern, the message clearer. The films have an opinion and they want to affect us emotionally. All three films assure us that these things actually happen. Everyday. There should be no accusations that this an in-topic and its depiction redundant. Even more there should be no accusations that this is not a suitable entertainment story. It is true Rendition moves dangerously close along the lines of a thriller and sometimes the viewing gets a bit uncomfortable, not because of what but because of the how certain storylines are depicted. But it does reach a very large audience. So do ITV’s Whistleblowers in which a man is held within England and a professional torturer is flown in. Three audiences are targeted at the same time. Should we not be glad that they are? Aren’t film and television legitimate platforms? Should we not be happy, that these films are made?

I think we should. For Extraordinary Rendition is a fact and is carried out by the countries we live in. People get literally kidnapped by the state, for once they are captured it does not get known where they are, their official status is ‘Missing’. Introduced by the Clinton administration in 1995 numbers of cases carried out have excessively increased in the ‘war on terror’. Between 1995 and 2001 Amnesty International recorded 5 known cases, since September 11th, 2001 the number has risen to 150. The dark figures are feared to be considerably higher. Slowly but surely the practice is being proven and known as more and more former prisoners are speaking out, like Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who got arrested during a flight connection in America and brought to Syria. For him “Water Boarding” became reality, one that he could not stop after a few seconds.

If serious, well made films can increase attention given to these matters, then they should. Especially when George W Bush says in the Times on the 27th January 2005 “Torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture.” while all the victims of "rendition" interviewed by Amnesty International have testified that they were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. Frankly the film scripts ring more truth.