Press
The Oath
June 18-24 at 7, 9pm
Academy Award-nominated Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country) provides a spectacular view of the inner-workings of the Al-Qaeda leadership, and a strong political statement. Her images and talent for exact observation make the case for an understanding of people that seems to have been lost in the war against terror.
"You have to understand people in order to recruit them." This is what Abu Jandal, former bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden, says to a group of Yemeni teenagers about his jihadist past. Abu Jandal broke the oath he had sworn as a member of Al-Qaeda and renounced his unconditional obedience to its leadership. The Oath is a portrait of this man and the dramatic, incredible path he has taken on his way to becoming one of the Arab world's most influential critics of the Islamic terror network. At the same time, the story unfolds of Salim Hamdan, Bin Laden's former driver, who was imprisoned at Guantánamo for several years.
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Press Release (from NY opening):
“THE OATH," LAURA POITRAS’ DARING AND COMPLEX DOCUMENTARY FILMED IN YEMEN ABOUT TWO OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT AL-QAEDA CASES IN THE“WAR ON TERROR,” TO HAVE U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE FRIDAY MAY 7 AT IFC CENTER IN NEW YORK
Winner – Best Documentary Cinematography, Sundance Film Festival and Official Selection at New Directors/New Films and the Berlin Film Festival
New York, NY, March 25, 2010— Zeitgeist Films is proud to announce the U.S. theatrical premiere of Laura Poitras’ (My Country, My Country) spectacularly daring documentary about the divergent paths of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, Abu Jandal, and driver, Salim Hamdan – the first prisoner detained at Guantanamo Bay to face trial by Military Commission. Currently screening at the 2010 New Directors/New Films series, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA, and winner of the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Documentary Cinematography, THE OATH will open at New York’s IFC Center on May 7, followed by a roll out to select U.S. cities.
Academy Award®-nominated director Laura Poitras brings to audiences a singular work of high-risk filmmaking with this gripping documentary political thriller shot on location in Yemen. THE OATH is the cross-cut tale of two men whose fateful meeting ultimately propelled them on very different courses with Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, September 11, Guantanamo Bay Prison and the U.S. Supreme court.
Abu Jandal is a taxi driver in Yemen and a free man, while the man he recruited, his brother-in-law Salim Hamdan, is the first man to stand trial before the controversial Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay Prison. Abu Jandal and Hamdan’s intertwined personal trajectories – how they became bin Laden’s bodyguard and driver respectively – act as prisms that serve to explore and contextualize a world which has confounded the Western media. As Hamdan’s trial progresses, his military lawyers challenge the court system, while back in Yemen the charismatic and elusive Abu Jandal dialogues with his young son, Muslim students and journalists in a chilling revelation of his personal post-9/11 belief system. THE OATH offers unsettling glimpses of the international impact of the U.S. War on Terror and a rare window into the world of Al-Qaeda.
To download production notes and high-resolution images, visit: www.zeitgeistfilms.com/theoath