Directing The Mauritanian: In Conversation with Kevin Macdonald
- Fabienne Marshall
- Jul 1, 2024
- 13 min read
Updated: Jul 6
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 unsanitised, 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.
CJLPA: Subsequent to the film coming out, Mohamedou has given talks at eminent institutions such as the Cambridge Union. How has he found speaking publicly on his time in Guantanamo?
KM: He is willing to talk about it but finds it really hard. There is a lot of trauma that gets brought up during the talks. After those sorts of talks, he has to recover. It takes him several days after each time to recover because he’s reliving the trauma each time. He wants to tell people but at the same time it affects him. When he came and stayed in my house, he liked spending a lot of time in his room. I don’t know much about prisoner psychology, but he likes to be in a small, controlled environment.
CJLPA: You now know him very well. How did you first come across Mohamedou’s story?
KM: I had actually read some of his book [Guantanamo Diary] when it came out it. I never thought of making a film about it until Benedict Cumberbatch’s production company got in touch with me and asked me whether I would be interested in being involved. I was not sure if there was anything more to say about the war on terror. The production company told me to just talk to Mohamedou. I spoke to him and it was his personality, wit, and warmth that really astonished me and I thought, I want to make a film about this character. I’m not a politician. I’m not a lawyer. I’m a filmmaker interested in stories and characters.
I just thought he was an extraordinary character who needed to be better known. I wanted to try and tell the story of Guantanamo in a way that really affects a wide audience that isn’t just preaching to the converted. The problem with a lot of human rights films and documentaries is that they are seen and admired by people who already agree with what is in them. We felt that we wanted to make a film that tried to reach both sides of the American political divide, to show that the justice that was served to Mohamedou was a travesty and that he was mistreated by the system. If you can move people to empathy, you can change their mind. You can make them understand the legal aspects of his case but in a simple but emotional way.
