How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair - The Prisoner
Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein's Innovative Film Has High Impact
The Prisoner: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair is a documentary of wrongful imprisonment, failed systems, and a corrupt war. But the very personal vantage point makes this film more memorable than many films with a larger scope. Yunis Khatayer Abbas and his brothers, Khalid and Yaas, are all taken prisoner from their homes. They were transported to Ganci prison, where 600 other Iraqis were being detained.
Soldiers called him a "dog" and a "monkey." He was tortured and beaten. The conditions were appalling, with feces and vermin in the food, people were very thin and unhealthy, and eventually protests erupted. People frequently vomited after eating; some could not eat the stale food at all. Four men died in the protest on November 24, 2003. One general stated that the prisoners were kept in "deplorable conditions."
Injustice, the Military, and Civilians in Iraq
Nothing was found in the home of Yunis when the Army charged in one night. The only videos were of his family, an engagement party, a wedding. A lockbox was opened to reveal....shampoo. After nine months of suffering and misery, the men were released. "Sorry," they were told. But Yunis was forever changed. Being a journalist, he smuggled writings on gum wrappers through visitor's mouths and wrote of deaths on his underwear. He wanted to get word out to the rest of the world as to what was taking place.
At one point, Yunis helped to maintain order in the prison and "dissolved the situation" by using loudspeakers to calm down the men. But still, he was sent to a "hard site," which depressed him further and further. Two Americans, Thompson and Butler, were crying about him, so moved were they by the character of the man. He felt he was going to the Guantanamo of Iraq, a place of no return. All of this, despite being labeled a "low value inmate." Yunis was prisoner #151186, but no records of such a prisoner now exist in U.S. Army records; it is through this film that his experience is recorded.
Innovative and Impactful Documentary of the War in Iraq Through a Prisoner's Eyes
Michael Tucker is to be congratulated for the masterful editing, excellent photography and overall innovation of his film. The viewer is brought into a relationship with the interviewees due to the up-close and personal, yet softly shaded shots of Yunis and Benjamin Thompson, a U.S. soldier. Cartoon-like graphics and dramatic music are interspersed with interviews, official documents, and actual footage from the arrest and detainment.
As Yunis tells his story, the viewer is along for the very rough ride. Mr. Abbas is a charming and well-spoken man, the perfect subject for the film. He is also a journalist and used to narrative. His transformation from the laughing man revealed playfully on the beach in the opening segments to the serious and changed, disillusioned man of later parts of the film, is indeed shocking. This is a not-to-be-missed film, one that will stay with you. Yunis repeatedly stated, "This is my country." One hopes it will be truly so.
- Movie site
- 75 minutes
- Pepper and Bones Film
- Nominee, Independent Spirit Award, 2008 - Best Documentary
- Red Envelope Entertainment
The Prisoner
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