THE OATH Directed by Laura Poitras
If you followed news coverage of the 9/11 terror attacks and their aftermath, you’ve probably heard of the two Yemeni men profiled by Laura Poitras in The Oath. Born in Saudi Arabia to Yemeni parents, Abu Jandal was 19 when he left home in 1994 to wage jihad in Bosnia; by 1997, he and his friend Salim Hamdan had been recruited by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Jandal served as bin Laden’s bodyguard and emir of a guesthouse for Al Qaeda trainees, where he met several of the 9/11 hijackers. Hamdan, described as a quieter and more reflective sort, worked as bin Laden’s chauffeur. After the attacks, the FBI spent five days interrogating Jandal, who’d been arrested a year earlier in connection with the U.S.S. Cole bombing, and his testimony—bought with sweets and kind words—helped link Al Qaeda to 9/11. Hamdan was captured by U.S. forces during the Afghanistan invasion, and his imprisonment as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice became the basis for the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.
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With its verite scenes of intense combat and candid interviews of U.S. soldiers (shot in Italy after the deployment), Restrepo comes closer to their experience than any documentary I’ve seen. But the most valuable lesson I took from it was that I’ll never completely understand.
The Oath Opens Friday at the Gene Siskel Film Center
Restrepo Pipers Alley
