Mark Heiliger There is a temptation to call this a political documentary, but it's really not all that political. In fact, I'm not sure if the word is even uttered once during these 72 minutes. It's actually about civil rights and what happens to them during a foreign occupation. Yunis Khatayer Abbas is a freelance news cameraman in Iraq and this is his story, straight from his mouth to your ears.The military routinely raids the homes of suspected terrorists in Iraq. This seems to make sense if they've got intelligence pointing to that person. Bad guys make bombs in there? Go get 'em. One night the Army raided Yunis' house and arrested him and his three brothers, claiming possession of intelligence that they were involved in a plot to assassinate Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair. Nevermind that no explosives or bomb-making materials were in the house. The presence of a pistol and a rifle magazine (never did see a rifle) were all that were required to justify their arrest. Yunis, and presumably his brothers, were all beaten in interrogation but revealed nothing about a plan to kill Blair probably because no such plan existed. Once it was determined they were of "low intelligence value" they were moved to Camp Ganci, a section of the Abu Ghraib prison, and kept there for almost a year.By Army officials' own admission, the state of that camp was as bad as it could be. It was overcrowded, leading to frequent riots, well within range of enemy artillery, prisoners were treated like animals, and the food was usually rotten and covered with bugs. As good as it might make someone feel to hear that enemy combatants were forced to live in concentration camps, we must remember that this camp was for the people with "low intelligence value." Even the Army guessed that 90% of the detainees there had no involvement with terrorism whatsoever. Why wasn't anyone being released? Embarrassment. If the military had to officially acknowledge that a great deal of its intelligence was wrong and that it was apprehending, violently questioning, and holding innocent people indefinitely, there would be a worldwide call for action. (Or so you'd think.) The guards at the prison only knew that they had to keep these people there no matter what, the soldiers who raid the homes of civilians only know that they have to capture anyone suspicious no matter what, the people who give them orders know that they have to follow Washington's directives no matter what, and the people in Washington only know that they can't look weak in the eyes of the American public, no matter what. Or else they might lose that election. So maybe it is about politics in the end.Upon his release, the man in charge of Camp Ganci told Yunis simply, "We were wrong. Sorry." Thanks for the update, buddy! Despite his treatment and horrid living conditions, Yunis doesn't once say that he hates America, George Bush, the Army, or freedom. In fact, he says he'd like to come to America one day because it's very beautiful here. His Kafkaesque journey into prison for no good reason and back again is an illustration of what happens to a society's liberties in a time of war. Armies don't care about a person's human rights when that person might possibly be an enemy. But if they use bad intelligence and arrest an innocent man, they have only created a new enemy where there was none before.http://www.movieswithmark.com

Patrickkrauss Look this is a good documentary about Journalisim/prison and USA brutality. I loved it, but the DVD I rented from Hollywood Video had the worst audio I seen since I've been in film school. Is this for real or am I just tripping, the levels were all over the place. The main interview that is the narrative voice of the entire film was so low and everything else was high enough to wake the neighbors down the street. Didn't they have a post audio mixer?Did anyone else have this problem or am I just tripping'?Otherwise I wanted to really enjoy this but I couldn't get over the amateur audio. Come on this was a great story. Is it really this easy to make a movie and sell it and have audio issues. I don't think so. But every one in the room was agreeing this is bizarre. Maybe and hopefully this was a bad DVD, for what could be a great documentary.

adhamiya This film is a sequel of sorts to "Gunner Palace" the Iraq film that came out in 2005. Much like that film, The Prisoner is not overtly political, rather, it lets the characters tell the story. In Gunner Palace, the perspective is the American soldier. In The Prisoner, the perspective is largely Iraqi. The films should be watched together to fully appreciate.I don't want to give away too much, but I can say that you walk away from this film feeling like you know an Iraqi and have a new sense of just how much the Iraqi people suffered--both under Saddam and during this conflict. The film is also surprisingly funny and it should come with a disclaimer that gives the audience permission to laugh. It would be funny if it wasn't true!As we enter the 5th year of the war, more people need to see films like this. I would also suggest reading the director's back-story in Vanity Fair at http://www.theprisoner.us.

info-11552 I just saw the film at a sneak preview screening in New York where we did not know what we were seeing. It's not the kind of film I would normally see, but I found that Mr. Abbas' story opened my eyes to what average Iraqis have suffered in this war. More, his story--and the charges against him--would be extremely funny if were not for the fact that they are true. Yes, US intelligence thought he was plotting to kill Tony Blair. How they thought he was supposed to do that (the only evidence they found was a bottle of shampoo!) is beyond me. The real shocker in the film is just how bad the conditions in Abu Ghraib were. The army admits now that up to 80% of the 1000s of prisoners there were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I also agree with the previous poster that the comic imagery is a surprise, but it does work. The whole story reads like a comedy of errors--complete with cartoonish villains.