The Oath (2010)

Director:

Laura Poitras

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

Two Men. Bound to Al-Qaeda. Divided by Fate.

Plot:

Tells the story of two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a course of events that led them to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo, and the U.S. Supreme Court. |

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Osama bin Laden	...	Himself (archive footage)
Salim Hamdan	...	Himself
Abu Jandal	...	Himself
Troy Lebane	...	Voice of Habeeb (voice)

Directed by
Laura Poitras

Produced by
Nasser Arrabyee	....	co-producer
Jennifer Filippazzo	....	field producer: Guantanamo Bay
Robert Hatch-Miller	....	associate producer
Aliza Kaplan	....	co-producer
Jonathan Oppenheim	....	co-producer
Laura Poitras	....	producer

Original Music by
Osvaldo Golijov

Cinematography by
Kirsten Johnson
Laura Poitras

Film Editing by
Jonathan Oppenheim

Production Management
Allison Davis	....	production manager

Sound Department
Sean O'Neil	....	sound mixer
Damian Volpe	....	sound re-recording mixer
Damian Volpe	....	supervising sound editor

Editorial Department
Danielle Morgan	....	assistant editor
Mike Nuget	....	colorist
Mike Nuget	....	on-line editor
Scot Olive	....	digital intermediate colorist

Other crew
Karim Ahmad	....	story consultant
David Magdael	....	publicist
Anne Stulz	....	publicist
Claudia Tomassini	....	international publicist

Production Companies

• ITVS
• P.O.V./American Documentary
• Praxis Films

Distributors

• Zeitgeist Films (2010) (USA) (all media)

Other Companies

• DitlevFilms  end title sequence

Also Known As:

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Arabic

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Guantanamo Bay U.S.N.B., Cuba

Company:

ITVS

Most viewers will never understand enough of this picture to form an opinion. . . .

Sadly, once again, we are confronted with a film crafted by a director who loses sight of the most important consideration: what does the viewer see? Story line, audio levels, camera angles, editing considerations are trivial details if the viewer has no way of understanding what is being spoken. This movie is spoken in Arabic, with English subtitles. The problem is that the subtitles of the translated Arabic are one quarter of the size of the subtitles of the SDH English subtitles. And, if that weren't bad enough, the subtitles are in white, often white on white, nearly impossible to read. And absolutely impossible to read at the speed necessary to keep up with the rapid dialogue and the rapidly changing subtitles. I was so looking forward to hearing what these Al Qaeda members had to say. It's too bad that the director wasn't sufficiently interested in allowing me that opportunity.