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The Forever Prisoner

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United States · 2021

Director Alex Gibney
Starring
Genre Documentary

The story of Abu Zubaydah, who was detained by the CIA but has never been charged with a crime or allowed to challenge his detention. In the aftermath of 9/11, Zubaydah was the first high-value detainee subjected to the CIA's program of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, later identified as torture by those outside the agency.

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What are critics saying?

90

CNN by Brian Lowry

The Forever Prisoner asks the right questions regarding not just Zubaydah but the broader prosecution of the war against terrorism. As the film makes clear, it's the answers that have proven elusive.

60

The Hollywood Reporter by Dan Fienberg

Nothing in The Forever Prisoner feels all that revelatory, but the thing that’s essential in the doc is the reminder that for all of the story’s familiarity, it reflects a situation that has been barely ameliorated over more than a decade.

88

RogerEbert.com by Nick Allen

The extremes uncovered in this film become revealing of what we accept as necessary, in what we as a nation rationalize as justice even without procedure. It is eye-opening, and yet also like Gibney’s best work, affirming in the worst ways.

83

The A.V. Club by Roxana Hadadi

Gibney’s challenging interview style, the uncompromising tone of his questions, and the way he undercuts Mitchell’s self-aggrandizing martyrdom (and conveniently murky timeline regarding the deployment of EITs in the field) are satisfying distillations of what so many people who recognize Mitchell as a war criminal who got away would probably like to say.

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