Guantanamo Trap, The

Wallner’s riveting film follows the story of a number of people whose lives were turned upside down by Guantanamo Bay. Murat Kurnaz, a German Turk is picked up leaving Pakistan. Navy lawyer Matt Diaz, tasked with keeping legal counsel from detainees, goes with his conscience and tries to leak a list of names. Judge Advocate Diane Beaver volunteers for Guantanamo and becomes the international press’ ‘torture lady.’ These and other stories unfold in terrible detail, underlining a calamitous epoch and the ruthlessness of the Bush regime. It’s clear nothing escaped Guantanamo’s taint, not the law, the people involved, nor mankind itself. This is compelling and compulsory viewing and, in the context of Bin Laden’s recent death, also highly relevant, a sage reminder of the perils of forced hegemony.