Rendition

Synopsis: An Egyptian-born US resident is abducted from the US to Egypt and tortured by the local police chief under the conscience-stricken supervision of a CIA analyst as the chief’s daughter is drawn into the machinations of vengeful fundamentalists.

Rendition dramatises the controversial CIA practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’. This calming euphemism bastardises judicially-endorsed extraditions, removing judicial oversight to enable the illegal transfer of terrorist suspects from the US or elsewhere to countries where they may be tortured in breach of UN conventions.

As the film does not profess to be ‘based on true events’, it is tempting to hope that this violation of human rights by the US Government against its own residents and other nationals is exaggerated. Yet the CIA has indisputably transferred many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of terror suspects to face torture. CIA insiders have reported at least some – as in this film - have been found to be the victims of mistaken identity or incorrect evidence.

The psychological impact of torture – on the victim, observers and cinema audience – briefly passes by in many films. In Rendition, torture and its consequences are the central issues. It begins with the abduction of chemical engineer Anwar (Omar Metwally) at Chicago airport as he arrives home from a conference in South Africa. With his passenger records deleted, his pregnant wife, Isabella (Reese Witherspoon), and young son are left standing in the Arrivals hall wondering what has happened to him. He is flown to Egypt for interrogation by local police chief, Abasi (Yigal Naor), at the direction of CIA boss, Corrinne Whitman (Meryl Streep). The brutal torture of Anwar is observed by CIA analyst, Douglas (Jake Gyllenhall), who has been promoted in the wake of a terrorist blast that killed his boss and must decide whether to accept personal responsibility for Anwar’s fate.

In a twist on the familiar Kafkaesque idea of an innocent man imprisoned with no explanation, Rendition partially shifts the emotional conflict and near paranoia that Douglas experiences to Isabella. She struggles to understand her husband’s disappearance and finds it almost impossible to find out what has happened to him until she finds limited assistance from an old friend (Peter Sarsgaard). Whilst Anwar’s story is powerfully told, this aspect of the film is somewhat undeveloped.

During Anwar’s imprisonment, it appears that Abasi’s daughter, Fatima (Zineb Oukach) is slowly realising her new boyfriend is being drawn into a plot engineered by local fundamentalists that involves vengeance against her father. The stories of Fatima and the consequences of her father’s actions ultimately collide spectacularly, but in a way least expected.

This terrible subject matter may feel uncomfortably close to home since Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was released without charge following years of imprisonment and alleged torture in Egypt and, of course, David Hick’s Guantanamo Bay experience. While Gavin Hood's film relies on some dramatic gloss and skates over a potential plot weakness, it’s a provocative story worth viewing.

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