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Absolutely worth seeing: "Rabiye Kurnaz vs George W. Bush"

a couple of actors is applauded
05.05.2022

Andreas Dresen verfilmt den Kampf einer Bremer Hausfrau um ihren Sohn im US-Gefängnis Guantánamo. Meltem Kaptan und Alexander Scheer spielen großartig.

Five years is a hell of a long time. Nobody knows that better than Murat Kurnaz from Bremen: That's how long he had to spend in Guantánamo, probably the best-known lawless prison in the Western world. In November 2001, Kurnaz was arrested in Pakistan and handed over to the USA. In January 2002, he was interned in Guantánamo as an alleged terror suspect, and it was not until August 2006 that he was released – and Andreas Dresen tells us why. And much more than that, because in the film "Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush" the director brings tragedy and comedy together in a wonderfully light composition.

A great Meltem Kaptan

This is mainly due to Meltem Kaplan as Rabiye Kurnaz. She is Murat's mother and appears very self-confident as a rather down-to-earth housewife in Bremen. Kaptan, a stand-up artist, brings the part of the struggling mother to the center of the film because she introduces the necessary wit and a certain lightness to what is otherwise a very depressing story. When Rabiye Kurnaz learns that her son is being held at Guantánamo, she takes up the fight for justice. She hires the rather reserved lawyer Bernhard Docke and goes all the way to the Supreme Court in Washington with him against the overpowering USA. 

Murat Kurnaz wrote a biography after his release: "Five Years of My Life. A Report from Guantánamo" is the name of the book, which was made into a movie in 2013 by Stefan Schaller.

Currently at the Hackesche Höfe cinema

With the recent film adaptation "Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush," Andreas Dresen and screenwriter Laila Stieler succeed in packing the unwieldy story of Guantánamo prisoner Murat Kurnaz into an entertaining comedy worth seeing. The two have collaborated before on outstanding films, most recently "Gundermann."

"Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush" is currently showing at the cinema in Hackesche Höfe.