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Title: Detenção Secreta (2007)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jake Gyllenhaal | ... | Douglas Freeman | |
| Reese Witherspoon | ... | Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi | |
| Meryl Streep | ... | Corrine Whitman | |
| Alan Arkin | ... | Senator Hawkins | |
| Peter Sarsgaard | ... | Alan Smith | |
| Omar Metwally | ... | Anwar El-Ibrahimi | |
| Igal Naor | ... | Abasi Fawal | |
| Hadar Ratzon Rotem | ... | Safiya (as Hadar Ratzon) | |
| J.K. Simmons | ... | Lee Mayer | |
| Simon Abkarian | ... | Said Abdel Aziz | |
 |
Moa Khouas | ... | Khalid El-Emin |
|
|
Zineb Oukach | ... | Fatima Fawal |
| Aramis Knight | ... | Jeremy El-Ibrahimi | |
| Rosie Malek-Yonan | ... | Nuru El-Ibrahimi | |
|
|
Laila Mrabti | ... | Lina Fawal |
After a terrorist bombing kills an American envoy in a foreign country, an investigation leads to an Egyptian who has been living in the United States for years and who is married to an American. He is apprehended when he's on his way home. The U.S. sends him to the country where the incident occurs for interrogation, which includes torture. An American C.I.A. operative observes the interrogation and is at odds whether to keep it going or to stop it. In the meantime, the man's wife raises hell to find him, but the person behind this refuses to help or give her any information. Written by rcs0411@yahoo.com
The powerhouse cast pulls the crowd in the theatre, despite the ominous title. Jake Gyllenhaal guested on Conan O'Brien to promote the movie and explained that 'Rendition' was a euphemism for obtaining information via torture. Since 9/11, 'extraordinary rendition' allowed the government's intelligence agency to extricate people unquestioningly without due process and use any means necessary in exchange for information.
Gyllenhaal plays rookie CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (note the irony) who is torn about his assignment which renders him as a mere observer to unorthodox interrogation proceedings at an underground detention facility outside the US.
Omar Metwally plays the suspected terrorist Anwar El-Ibrahimi, Egyptian national and green card-carrying hubby of American Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon). Isabella and her son wait for Anwar to come home from a scientific conference when he suddenly disappears from the plane's passenger manifest. She seeks help from her college friend who works in government and learns that the Head of Intelligence, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) is behind it all.
Rendition is directed by Hollywood newbie Gavin Hood (who is set to do X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and begs the question of whether such 'extraordinary rendition' is exercised in real life. The movie was released locally in the wake of the Glorietta explosion (bombing/mishap?), and a pivotal scene in the movie is when a bomb explodes in a public plaza, so that must have sent chills up every moviegoer's spine. Seeing the exploding tableau with a lone red and yellow sign Aajala (Ayala?) on the upper right hand of the screen, plus the effect of silence and slow-moving images magnified the impact of the scene's real-life coincidence.
There are lessons to learn from this movie and it all boils down to personal decisions we make, daily. We all have choices we can exercise at will, and we often do not always (want to) see how these affect others, who may end up as hapless victims of circumstance. What 'the greater good' is should not have to be a forced choice our leaders have to take if we each already decide correctly at the source. Now that's a utopia worth building.