What is to be done with suspected terrorists brought to Guantánamo Bay when many prosecutors have no substantiated evidence against them? This question has turned into one of the greatest of the decade.
“The Response,” a short film produced and written by Sig Libowitz, which was screened at the Columbia Law School on Wednesday, aims to explore just that—how the military and government have chosen to act. For, as one of the military officers in the film attests, “Our response defines us.”
The Combat Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs), which the film dissects, were a series of tribunals that determined the “enemy combatant status” of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Libowitz said that upon seeing a report from the tribunals, he knew that “it had to be made into a film.”
“The Response” looks at one tribunal of a suspected enemy combatant, Hassan Ali Al-Aqar, portrayed by Aasif Mandvi, as he is questioned by three military officials, played by Kate Mulgrew, Peter Riegert, and Sig Libowitz. Though the characters are fictional, the script is based on transcripts from the CSRTs.
Throughout the first half, Al-Aqar protests the fact that he is not allowed to know who has accused him of terrorist affiliation, while the officers remain stubbornly opaque and harangue him with questions he has no answers to. Shot in an off-the-cuff documentary style, the scene is oppressive, leaning the audience’s sympathies towards Al-Aqar.
Next, the officers consider in private how to deal with the case, and two of them realize that they don’t know what the right decision is. Unlike the first half, this discussion feels heavily scripted as each officer sticks by predictable dialogue that summarizes the entire five-year debate on the issue in ten minutes.
The short is among the final ten being considered for a nomination for the Best Live Action Short Films at this year’s Academy Awards. Anyone with a critical eye might wonder if this is due to the gravity of the content rather than the artistic merits of the film. The shooting style is decently between mockumentary and low-budget, and it is admirable that the cast and crew worked on the film for little or no compensation, especially as the acting was well done. However, Libowitz’s script is heavy-handed and falls short in the end.
The issues at hand are undoubtedly important ones, and this is a film that everyone should see, but there’s a question in itself as to whether the film deserves an Oscar simply on the grounds that it presents stimulating discourse.
Currently the film is looking for a distributor and making a tour of universities and showing private screenings, including recently at the Pentagon. More information can be found online.
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