2008 Athens International Film Festival
U.S. military takes a 'Taxi to the Dark Side'
By Michelle Davey, Staff Writer
April 27, 2008 | 3 p.m.
"We have to work the dark side, if you will. We’ve got to spend time in the shadows of the intelligence world,” said Vice President Dick Cheney a few short days after September 11, 2001.
But how far will the U.S. government go in the pursuit of terrorists? Alex Gibney's "Taxi to the Dark Side" examines the use of torture on detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.
A feature film at this year'a Athens International Film Festival, “Taxi to the Dark Side” is the Academy Award winner for Best Feature Documentary. Its entry point is a young, Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar who, unfortunate enough to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, is arrested and taken to the American prison in Bagram. Five days later, he is dead.
Dilawar, a young husband and father, is now one of the nameless, faceless victims of U.S. torture policies. He is one of 105 detainee deaths-- one of the 37 of those deaths that were officially declared homicides by the military. He is one of 83,000 people detained for suspected terrorist activity, none of whom were given a fair trial. He also falls into the 90-plus percent of detainees who were not arrested by U.S. military but handed over by Afghan warlords or Pakistanis.
“Taxi to the Dark Side” uses shocking, uncensored photographs of prisoners being tortured and humiliated at Abu Ghraib. Chilling videos of detainees screaming in agony are played without sound or music-- the audience's attention forced to focus on the horrifying images alone.
Gibney effortlessly mixes these startling images with interviews with journalists, lawyers and military personnel. Perhaps the most telling of these interviews are with the U.S. soldiers who were interrogators at Bagram and Abu Ghraib.
In scenes draped in an eerie black, these young men, who seem haunted and confused as they are questioned, tell how they beat Dilawar to death, kicking his legs so much that they were reduced to pulp. But they thought they were following orders.
“Taxi to the Dark Side” traces the line of command from these young soldiers up through their officers to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the president himself. The film encourages Americans to take notice of these events and to understand the fundamental human rights that are being violated by our own government’s torture tactics.
Gibney dedicated the film to his father, a veteran interrogator in World War II who encouraged his son to make “Taxi to the Dark Side.” As the credits role, Gibney’s father gives the film’s final interview. Although very sick, just a few months away from his death, Frank Gibney’s anger is clear, striking a chord for American decency. He would have never interrogated Japanese prisoners the way detainees are being treated today.
“We had the sense that we were on the side of the good guys,” Frank Gibney said. “People would get decent treatment. And there was the rule of law.”
---
“Taxi to the Dark Side”
Speakeasy Rating: A-
Running Time: 125 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Showings:
Sunday, April 27 at Athena: 9:45 p.m.
Monday, April 28 at Athena: 9:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 1 at Athena: 4:30 p.m., 9:15 p.m.
Check out the official Web site of the Athens Film Festival for more information about the 31 feature films and 215 competition films playing at this year's festival, running April 25 through May 1.