Camp X-Ray (2014)

Genre

Drama

Director

Peter Sattler 

Country

USA

Cast

Kristen Stewart, Peyman Moaadi, Julia Duffy, John Carroll Lynch, Lane Garrison, Joseph Julian Soria, Tara Holt, Ser'Darius Blain, Cory Michael Smith, Mark Naji, Anoop Simon, Robert Tarpinian, Yousuf Azami, Marco Khan, Kyle Bornheimer, Nawal Bengholam, LaDell Preston, Daniel Leavitt

Storyline

Army private first class Amy Cole (Kristen Stewart) is placed as a guard at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Her convictions become less certain after she strikes up a tenuous friendship with one of the detainees (Peyman Moaadi).

Opinion

Surprisingly good, intense, and solid, Camp X-Ray is one of those films that doesn't even leave you after the end credits.

The film should serve as an eye-opening to those who believe in the legitimacy of the Americans wars against the eponymous enemy. Also, it is an ode, a praise to humanness. It shows that living all together in peace, as John Lennon hoped, may be just a utopia, but from an individual perspective, it is possible to make a difference, to knock down those walls that separate different, yet similar people.

In his directorial debut, with a million dollar budget, Peter Sattler achieves a fantastic result, result to which Michael Bay has failed to get even close with multiple stratospheric budgets.

The storytelling is slow, and repetitive, and it would be natural to wonder why some scenes haven't been cut in the editing room. But as you go on with the film, you realise that's how it was supposed to be, because that's the only way to fully immerge the audience in the claustrophobic prison's cells blocks.

The acting surprised me the most. Kristen Stewart has finally found the kind of thing that suits her. Being done with that teen garbage, she finally shows that she can act, playing the lead very well, and delivering the message. However, the real star is Peyman Moaadi. He delivers a brilliant performance and reaches the heart. 

Quotes

Ali Amir: You're asking me why do I want to die, but you don't see that I'm not even living. You gus control everything. You tell us what to eat, when to sleep. Even when we don't want to eat, you tell me we must. It is your life... it is not ours.