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You Don't Like the Truth - 4 Days inside Guantánamo
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You Don't Like the Truth - 4 Days inside Guantánamo
IDFA 2010

You Don't Like the Truth - 4 Days inside Guantánamo

Luc Coté, Patricio Henriquez
Canada
2010
99 min
International Premiere
Festival history
IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary
His orange overalls symbolize terrorism, but Omarf Khadr's vulnerable, withdrawn attitude tells a very different story. In February 2003, the 16-year-old Canadian Afghani was interrogated by Canadian intelligence in the prison at Guantánamo Bay. Khadr had allegedly killed an American soldier, so according to Washington he was a war criminal. Footage from security cameras over the course of those four days forms the basis of this film. We meet Khadr's cellmates, his lawyer, and former Canadian government officials, as well as a psychiatrist and an investigative reporter who sketch the context of Khadr's dubious case. In split-screen, the talking heads alternate with footage of the lonely teenager in the interrogation room. "I'm not gonna trust you if you don't tell me the truth," says Khadr's invisible interrogator. In his lawyer's opinion, "It was obvious that this [questioning] was unlawful." And according to his cellmate in Guantánamo, "If you lie, they want to hear more lies. If you tell the truth, they're not gonna believe you." In October 2010, Omar Khadr had just plead guilty to all charges, part of a plea bargain that would get him an eight-year sentence instead of life in prison. This makes him the first person to be convicted as a war criminal since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and the first child soldier since Nuremburg to be found guilty of war crimes.
Credits
World Sales
    Films Transit International Inc.
    Films Transit International Inc.
Screening copy
    Les Films Adobe
    Les Films Adobe
Involved TV Channel
    Canal D
    Canal D