SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
Directed by Kevin Macdonald and based on the NY Times best-selling memoir “Guantánamo Diary” by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, this is the inspiring true story of Slahi’s fight for freedom after being detained and imprisoned without charge by the U.S. Government for years. Alone and afraid, Slahi (Tahar Rahim) finds allies in defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) who battle the U.S. government in a fight for justice that tests their commitment to the law and their client at every turn. Their controversial advocacy, along with evidence uncovered by a formidable military prosecutor, Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch), uncovers shocking truths and ultimately proves that the human spirit cannot be locked up.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Mauritanian Plot Summary and Synopsis
Based on a true story.
November 2001, Mohamedou Ould Slahi is in Mauritania, two months after 9/11. A Mauritanian policeman tells Mohamedou that Americans want to have a talk with him. Mohamedou agrees to go with them.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2005, lawyer Nancy Hollander is told by French lawyer Emmanuel that a lawyer from Mauritania approached his firm in Paris on behalf of Mohamedou’s family.
They haven’t seen Mohamedou since he was arrested three years ago and only just found out in a newspaper that he is being held by the US at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and is accused of being one of the organizers of 9/11. Emmanuel asks Nancy to look into it because she has security clearance from a previous case and can ask questions he can’t. Nancy agrees to check.
At a Naval Law Conference in New Orleans, Marine Prosecutor Stuart Couch is told by Colonel Bill Seidel, about Mohamedou case they want him to prosecute, who they say fought with Al-Qaeda in the 90s and then recruited for them in Germany, and says it was Mohamedou who recruited the terrorist who flew Stu’s friend’s plane into the tower.
Nancy and Teri fly down to Guantánamo to meet Mohamedou. Mohamedou agrees to hire them as his lawyers. Meanwhile, Stu tells his team to go through all the intel reports they have to corroborate the story against Mohamedou.
Nancy finds out through Mohamedou’s letter which she received from him while Stu looks at the MFR (Memorandum for the Record), showing what exactly happened. The letter and reports talk about enhanced torture and treatment including sexual assault with Mohamedou by the Guantanamo guards as ordered by General Mandel. General Mandel had also threatened him with the arrest and rape of his mother. Thus, to save his mother, Mohamedou gave false confession about being a terrorist.
December 2009, at trial Mohamedou, is able to testify over video link to the court. March 2010, Mohamedou gets a letter and finds out his case was successful, and the judge has ordered that he be released.
The on-screen text says that it would actually be another 7 years before he was released because the government appealed. His mother died in 2013, and he never saw her again.
He was finally released in 2016, having spent 14 years in prison without ever being charged.
The Mauritanian Ending
Finally, footage of the real Mohamedou arriving back in Mauritania is shown. The on-screen text says Mohamedou lives in Mauritania and got married in 2018 to an American lawyer. They have a baby son, Ahmed, but haven’t been able to live together as a family and are hoping a country will grant them protection and citizenship.
Nancy and Teri are still lawyers working against injustice, and we see footage of Mohamedou giving them necklaces with their names in Arabic.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).