Four people whose biographies are intrinsically linked to the Guantanamo Bay internment camp on Cuba: firstly, a former prisoner from Germany. Secondly, two military lawyers active in the so-called war against terror, who themselves were instrumentalised in the system of torture and eventually plunged into a personal and moral crisis. And finally, the Spanish lawyer Gonzalo Boye, who set himself the task of bringing several representatives of the Bush administration to justice for crimes against humanity.
Murat Kurnaz was released from the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after five years of imprisonment. He was detained without trial. In the same year, Matthew Diaz, Judge Advocate for the Navy, was sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment for passing on the names of the detainees to a human rights organisation. Judge Advocate Diane Beaver was also deployed in Guantanamo. Here, she became the author of a legal document that would later be nicknamed the ‘torture memo’.
Three encounters with Guantanamo, three individuals, whose lives will be forever changed. Their stories are exemplary and yet unique. The roles they played are ambiguous, the usual definition of victim and perpetrator is secondary. In the maelstrom that is Guantanamo, in the free falling of a lawless space beyond the Geneva convention, beyond International jurisdiction – notions of good and evil, right and wrong lose their meaning.
Documentary, CH/D/CND 2011, 92′
Director Thomas Wallner
Production
T&C Film, Zürich
zero one film, Berlin
Xenophile Media/ Amythos Media, Toronto
Worldsales
First Hand Films, Zürich
