15 Years Later: The Road to Guantánamo

Directors: Mat Whitecross, Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Waqar Siddiqui
Running time: 95 minutes

In September 2001, three young British men of Pakistani and Bangladeshi ancestry (known as the Tipton Three) were captured by Northern Alliance fighters in Afghanistan, after travelling to Pakistan for a wedding. Subsequently handed over to American forces, they were held and subjected to sickening torture methods in Guantánamo Bay for more than two years before they were eventually put back on a long flight home. The Road to Guantánamo stars the British-Pakistani actor, Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal, Nightcrawler) and can be likened to later releases such as 2021’s The Mauritanian and The Report, released in 2019. 

The original release of The Road to Guantánamo came shortly after the suicides of three prisoners, held in American custody in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. At the time there was renewed concern, globally, over the policy of detaining suspected terrorists for a limitless amount of time without trial and the treatment of them while they are being held. The film, including interview footage of the Tipton Three, displays the horrifying cruelty detainees went through – an account which I imagine most Western democracies would prefer not to remember. 

Through re-enactments by nonprofessional actors, the film begins showing Asif Iqbal as he flew to Pakistan to meet the woman his mother had chosen for him to marry. He is later joined by Ruhal Ahmed, who agreed to be his best man, and two other friends, Shafiq Rasul and Monir, just days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. 

The idea of crossing the border into Afghanistan appears to be almost on a whim and this part of the story is accompanied by miserable bus rides over bumpy, uneven terrain. An imam had urged them to offer humanitarian aid to families in Afghanistan, in October 2001, shortly before the US-led invasion on the Taliban regime began. For the young men, it appears to be a naive search for adventure, and they are seen talking excitedly about the size of Afghan flatbreads one night outside a restaurant as if they’re about to embark on a road trip. However, it suddenly turns very serious when they arrive in Kabul and US bombs begin landing across residential areas. They immediately try to escape back to Pakistan in a minibus taxi, but the driver takes them further towards danger, to the city of Kunduz. The city is about to be surrounded by the forces of General Dostum and amidst the capture and chaos, Monir disappears, to be never seen again.

The Tipton Three survive the Dasht-i-Leili massacre, led by Dostum, and a subsequent month of near-starvation conditions in Sheberghan prison and expect relief when they are finally handed over to the Americans. Instead, they are accused of being Al Qaeda fighters, dehumanised and subjected to years of interrogation and horrific torture methods which leaves anyone watching shaken, angry and sickened. 

 The childhood friends from Tipton in the West Midlands were fortunate enough to eventually be released, but others have been less lucky. Today, forty prisoners remain in Guantánamo Bay, a place where neither US nor international law is applied, and former detainees have not received any justice for the brutality they endured. 

This film has the immense power to shock, even though the action is formed entirely of re-enactments, shot mostly in Iran, since no camera can infiltrate the actual isolation cells, interrogation rooms and cages of Camps X-Ray and Delta. But the interviews with the genuine former detainees add a dichotomy of reality and the early scenes of Pakistan and Afghanistan have the shaky, grainy urgency of footage being captured with restless impulse. 

The ongoing release of films with a similar theme is an encouraging sign that Guantánamo Bay is not being completely forgotten about, but the need for action is still very much apparent today. 

Did you know? Two of the actors and the former inmates that they portrayed were detained at Luton airport after flying back from the Berlin Film Festival. Riz Ahmed said that he had a phone wrestled from his hand as he tried to contact a lawyer and was asked if he had become an actor to further the Islamic cause.