Taxi to the Dark Side, Dir Alex Gibney, US 2007
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Taxi to the Dark Side
13 - 20, 22 Jun - 3 , 5 - 6 Jul 2008
***** "...the single most significant film to emerge from the Iraq conflict." Time Out
**** The Times
"Is that what we do, as Americans? Are those our values? Then what do we stand for?" Roger Ebert
Winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, director Alex Gibney's follow-up to Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a powerful investigation into the Bush administration's abuse of power. In 2002, Afghan taxi driver Dilawar was taken the the US prison at Bagram Air Base after a paid informant said he was a terrorist. Five days later he was dead, with the official cause of death initially reported as "natural causes". An autopsy called the death homicide and described injuries inflicted during custody which would have necessitated the amputation of Dilawar's legs had he lived. Taking Dilawar as his starting point, and with a remarkable range of interviewees and striking use of photographs, Gibney follows the officially sanctioned drift towards "the dark side", Dick Cheney's term for torture and inhumane methods of interrogation. A chilling film that tackles its subject with clarity and a lack of cant as it moves from first-hand personal experiences to wider philosophical issues without once losing its grip.
Dir Alex Gibney, US 2007, 106 mins, some subtitles, cert tbc
£8 / £7 Concessions / £6 ICA Members.