Michael Tucker Tagged Articles at Cinematical
SXSW Review: The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », SXSW », Theatrical Reviews », Cinematical Indie »
Whatever you might think about the war in Iraq, it has created an entire subgenre of films in the past few years, mostly documentaries. We've seen films focusing on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, films shot from the point of view of ordinary Iraqi citizens, films about Al Jazeera's coverage of the war, and last year I even saw a documentary about USO comedians entertaining troops in Iraq. The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair is one of the latest in this series, and it's at the opposite end of the spectrum from the comedians' point of view. The documentary examines the experiences of a prisoner of war sent to Abu Ghraib.
Yunis Abbas is a longtime journalist and photographer in Iraq. In 2003, U.S. military invaded his home on the grounds that it was a suspected terror cell. Abbas and his brothers were thought to be making bombs to assassinate Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair. Abbas spent nine months in Abu Ghraib even though no evidence could be found to support the allegations, and the U.S. was aware that he had no useful information to impart about terrorism plots.
The Prisoner and the Soldier: Another Side of Abu Ghraib
Filed under: Documentary », Drama », Independent », Politics », Cinematical Indie »
An article in the latest issue of Vanity Fair goes behind-the-scenes to give a deeper look at the story behind the film The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair. When the soldiers guarding Abu Ghraib were suddenly changed out in the wake of the scandal surrounding the prison and the treatment of Iraqi detainess there, one of the new soldiers who came on board was Benjamin Thompson, a real estate appraiser-turned prison guard by the war. During his turn as a prison guard, Thompson befriended an imprisoned Iraqi journalist named Yunis Abbas. Abbas' arrest, along with his brothers, had been documented in a film called Gunner Palace, co-directed by Michael Tucker. Abbas and his brothers were arrested, supposedly, for attempting to plan the assassination of Tony Blair, then were subsequently detained for no apparent reason in the lowest-level security camp at Abu Ghraib before being released months later.
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The International 'Iron Man 2' Poster Subtracts a Suit
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