Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush: biopic in which a Turkish-born mother fights for the release of her innocently imprisoned son in Guantanamo.
Film plot and background
Biopic in which a Turkish-born mother fights for the release of her innocently imprisoned son at Guantanamo.
It is a shock followed by impotence. When the simple housewife and mother Rabiye Kurnaz (Meltem Kaptan) learns that her son Murat Kurnaz (Abdullah Emre Öztürk) has been captured and is stuck in the US prison camp Guantanamo, she no longer understands the world. She alerts the police and authorities, but no one can really explain to her how this came about.
While Murat has to endure torture, waterboarding and solitary confinement in Guantanamo, and is forbidden contact with his family and a lawyer, Rabiye has no choice but to fight for him anyway in her terraced house in Bremen. She gets support from human rights lawyer Bernhard Docke (Alexander Scheer), who will eventually take the case all the way to the Supreme Court in the USA. The Turkish-born housewife from Bremen Rabiye Kurnaz against US President George W. Bush.
But the road to justice is long: In the end, Murat Kurnaz will sit innocently behind bars for five years in the inhumane prison in Guantanamo, where the basic rights of detainees are suspended. For Rabiye it is a nerve-wracking experience, which she leads with wit and heart despite all the hopelessness.
“Rabiye Kurnaz vs George W. Bush” – background, cast, cinema release
Murat Kurnaz sat innocently in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre from January 2002 to August 2006. German authorities later stated that he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” when he was arrested in Pakistan in November 2001. He was alleged to have had links to al-Qaida, but this was never proven and was based on false testimony. He described his events in prison in the book “Five Years of My Life”, which was made into a film in 2013 (“5 Jahre Leben”).
Now director Andreas Dresen (“Wolke Neun”) takes on the story of his mother Rabiye Kurnaz during this difficult time. The leading role is played by comedian Meltem Kaptan, who makes her German-language film debut in “Rabiye Kurnaz against George W. Bush”. At her side, Alexander Scheer (“Gundermann”) slips into the role of the lawyer Bernhard Docke. The screenplay was written by Laila Stieler, who has already realised several projects with Dresen.
“Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush” celebrates its world premiere in the competition of the Berlinale 2022 and competes for the Golden Bear. At the end of the festival, the film received two awards: For Best Performance in a Leading Role for Meltem Kaptan and for Best Screenplay for Laila Stieler. The regular theatrical release is on 28 April 2022.
