Jihad Rehab (2022)

Original title

The UnRedacted

Directed by

Meg Smaker

Genre

documentary

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 48m

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 2 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

The film follows several former jihadists released from Guantanamo Bay as they go through a rehabilitation program in Saudi Arabia. It shows their daily life and counseling sessions at the center.

observationalrestrainedhumanizingunsettlingcalmseriouscontemplativetense

What happens

The UnRedacted, first released as Jihad Rehab, is a 2022 documentary film which follows a group of former jihadists who have been released from Guantanamo Bay detention camp to the Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef Center for Advice and Care, a rehabilitation center for Islamist jihadis in Saudi Arabia. The film was conceived and directed by Meg Smaker. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Competition on 22 January 2022 and earned generally "strong" reviews, described as "humanizing" and powerful. However, the film was also attacked for allegedly being "yet another story about Muslims as terrorists", thereby “recycling 'harmful and Islamophobic narratives'", for taking up space that could have gone to 'Muslim, and/or MENASA filmmakers' to tell non-terrorism related stories, and for allegedly "endangering its subjects". The work has been defended by the National Review, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. They noted the film was widely praised (including by people who now condemn it) until a campaign by Muslim and Arab filmmakers on social media, that (assisted by legal threats), led to the withdrawal of invitations from other film festivals and to the shunning of the film by distributors. As of October 2022 the film is unavailable to the general public. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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