A tough young soldier (Kristen Stewart of Twilight), eager to see the world and prove herself, is assigned to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, where her growing friendship with one of the prisoners (Peyman Moaadi of A Separation) puts her at odds with her superiors. Writer-director Peter Sattler, who got his start as a set dresser for David Gordon Green, grounds his story in the cold operational detail of Gitmo, showing how the soldiers there administer the legal limbo of indefinite detention and insulate themselves from the cruelty and injustice of what they’re doing. “This is a war zone,” another soldier advises the protagonist, yet theirs is a war without gunfire or explosions, carried out in near silence on brightly lit hallways, and waged against the human spirit.
Reader Recommends: FILM & TV
Our critics review the best on the big and small screens and in the media.
