There are two sides to every story:
The Road to Guantanamo
by Michael Winterbottom & Mat Whitecross(GB, 2006, 95 min).
Date: 10 August 2006 (Thursday)
Time: 6 pm - 8.00pm
Venue: Bar Council Auditorium
FREE ADMISSION -- ALL WELCOME
Synopsis
A film about three British nationals and their little camping trip to Afghanistan and to Guantanamo. This film chronicles the journey of Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed who decided to pay a visit to Pakistan ahead of the American invasion in 2001.Their original intent was to help out the people of the region. They soon ventured over the border into Afghanistan. Before long there was an intense conflict and they found themselves in the least serendipitous circumstances imaginable.Held by the Northern Alliance, the three were turned over to the Americans and sent on a trip to Camp X-Ray, then Camp Delta on Guantanamo for two years.They were accused of having attended a rally training camp help by Osama bin Laden - a charge which Britain's MI5 refuted. As a result they are repeatedly Tortured and held without hope of a trial.While the film is not a documentary, it is a true and very sad story. It is a hard-hitting reminder of how far America has strayed from its core principles.
Visit: http://www.roadtoguantanamomovie.com/
Berlin Film Festival 2006:Silver Bear
Best Director: Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross.
There is a story about a woman who chose not to be a “victim”. She and her family left their homeland when she was a child soon after the beat of ‘war drums’ and the sound of weapons being sharpened were heard around her village. The village used to be named after her ‘race’ - Kampung Melayu Kaki Bukit - but now it has a new name - Hougang.
At the host country where she received a scholarship from her employer to further her studies at a premier university, there were protests and demonstrations against the establishment of “Universiti Merdeka”.
She could have chosen to bear grudges and ‘avenge’ for being discriminated and relegated as a “second class citizen” but she chose to support every citizen’s rights to formal education and knowledge, and risked being labelled "selling out on the Malays".
Now, can she hope to sensitize 'disgruntled' citizens/students by teaching at the very heartland of Chinese 'chauvinism'?
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