spanx' DVD watchlist : THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO

this half reenactment/half documentary hybrid is this generation's MIDNIGHT EXPRESS;
(that movie, with an adapted screenplay by Oliver Stone,
detailed the true story of an American thrown into a Turkish Jail for years)

but this time,
the Americans and the Brits
(of the 2nd Iraqi War's Northern Alliance)
are the bad guys.

it's a harrowing, vividly retold true story of "The Tipton Three",
a group of ordinary 2nd generation Pakistani immigrants from England,
who originally just visited their homeland to attend a wedding,
and in the grandest mistake of their lives,
decide to do an Ian Wright-Lonely Planet tour....
of the neighbouring Afghanistan.

Talk about Wrong Timing.

the three mates cross over to Osama's homeland right after 9/11,
get stuck in Kabul,
somehow get herded with hundreds of Al Quaeda surrenderees,
and eventually are captured by American Forces,
who wrongly accuse them of being supporters of Bin Laden.

They eventually spend 3 long years in jails in Guantanamo.
(yup, the same U.S. base off Cuba
where Jack Nicholson & Tom Cruise clashed in A Few Good Men)


While the story by itself already makes for an excellent, if uncomfortable,
viewing experience,
the fine camerawork that accurately captures and portrays
scenes of two places most Pinoys will never visit---
the exotic towns & wild mountains of Afghanistan,
and the efficient poultry-like jails of Guantanamo---

make this an even more disturbing, exhausting,
but ultimately gratifying tale of redemption.