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Fabienne Marshall

Directing The Mauritanian: In Conversation with Kevin Macdonald

Updated: Sep 15

Over his career, Kevin Macdonald has directed a plethora of documentaries and films which have garnered critical acclaim and popular success. Not one to shy away from sensitive and complex subject matter, Kevin’s work depicts un-sanitised, thought-provoking stories, from a documentary on antisemitism to a film on a prisoner in Guantanamo. For the former, Kevin was awarded an Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. His latest film, The Mauritanian, explores the real story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a man imprisoned by the US government in Guantanamo and charged with organizing the 9/11 attacks. The film follows civil rights lawyer Nancy Hollander, marine prosecutor Steve Crouch, and the alleged terrorist Mohamedou himself. Featuring a star studded cast of Benedict Cumberbatch, Jodie Foster and Tahar Rahim, the film intricately weaves complex themes such as the rule of law to make a compelling legal drama.


CJLPA: Before we delve into the film The Mauritanian, we wanted to know what impact the film had had on Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s life and how life has been for him since the film came out.

 

Kevin Macdonald: I spoke to him recently. He is doing well. He still runs into difficulties with certain countries. They still won’t let him into Germany which is where he was living before he was arrested. He’s a sensitive soul and finds it really upsetting. One of the things that’s remarkable to me is that he is not more embittered. He wants to be positive, do positive things and not regret all the time he lost. This is in the context of his mother dying whilst he was in prison [Guantanamo]. He is also incredibly forgiving. So for him to be faced with these accusations, which are almost certainly orchestrated to some degree by embarrassed individuals in the security services, is awful. I was told that this was the case by the German ambassador to Mauritania, who became a very good friend of Mohamedou’s. The German ambassador said that there were people in the BND who act hand in glove. These people don’t want to admit they were wrong [about Mohamedou]. They would rather just keep on besmirching his reputation.

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