Camp X-Ray (2014)

Directed by: Peter Sattler
Country: USA

Movie Review: Debutant writer/director, Peter Sattler, creates a fictional drama set in Guantanamo Bay detention facility, known as Camp X-Ray. Amy (Kirsten Stewart), a small town-girl, becomes part of a new group of guards specifically assigned to camp Delta. Right in her first intervention, she learns that her stay won’t be easy, not only with respect to the detainees, but also with respect to her colleagues in the profession and the unstable structure of the system itself. While delivering books to the cells, she is constantly pushed into conversation by Ali (Peyman Moaadi), a talkative detainee who complains about the inexistence of one of Harry Potter’s volumes. After an unpleasant incident, Amy’s curiosity about this man grows strong, leading to an improbable friendship. The film, well-intentioned yet overlong, leaves positive impressions in several aspects: confident direction, committed performances, depiction of the problems affecting guards and their procedures, but fails on that one that could have made it tolerable – authenticity. There’s some sweetness, even some lightness, associated to several scenes that feel inadequate, and the postures and dialogues were just occasionally followed with attentiveness. This friendship was never truly convincing, forcing me to look into “Camp X-Ray” as an unimportant fictional exercise showing superficial insight about a grievous subject matter.