TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE

Year: 2007
USA: THINKFilm
UK: Revolver Entertainment
Cast: Alex Gibney (narrator), Moazzam Beg, William Brand, Jack Cloonan, Damien Corsetti, Thomas Curtis, Eric Lahammer, Carlotta Gall, Tim Golden, Scott Horton, Tony Lagouranis, Carl Levin, Alfred W McCoy, Alberto J Mora, Anthony Morden, Brian Keith Allen, Greg D'Agostino, Karyn Plonsky, Gita Gutierrez, Tom Wilner, John Yoo, Clive Stafford Smith, John Hutson, Maan Kaassamani, Jack Reed, Lawrence Wilkerson, George W Bush, Dick Cheney
Director: Alex Gibney
Country: USA
USA: 106 mins
UK: 108 mins
USA Rated: R for disturbing images, and content involving torture and graphic nudity
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong images of torture, abuse and humiliation, some sexual
USA Release Date: 18 January 2008 (Limited Release - New York)
UK Release Date: 13 June 2008 (Limited Release - London, ICA)
UK DVD Release: 30 June 2008
ICA

Synopsis

In 2002, Afghan taxi driver Dilawar was taken the US prison at Bagram Air Base after a paid informant said he was a terrorist. Five days later he was dead, with the official cause of death initially reported as "natural causes". An autopsy called the death homicide and described injuries inflicted during custody which would have necessitated the amputation of Dilawar's legs had he lived.

Taking Dilawar as his starting point, and with a remarkable range of interviewees and striking use of photographs, Gibney follows the officially sanctioned drift towards "the dark side", Dick Cheney's term for torture and inhumane methods of interrogation.

A powerful investigation into the Bush administration's abuse of power, TAXI TO THE DARKSIDE is an Academy Award® Winning documentary and a chilling film that tackles its subject with clarity and a lack of hypocrisy as it moves from first-hand personal experiences to wider philosophical issues without once losing its grip.

Awarded Best Documentary Feature at this year's Oscars, TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE is a gripping investigation into the shocking mistreatment of United States' prisoners of War held in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Directed by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, who also made the Oscar nominated Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, the film will be released on DVD by Revolver Entertainment on 30th June 2008.

This disturbing and often brutal film is the most incisive examination to date of the Bush Administration's willingness to undermine human rights in its prosecution of the 'war on terror'. Incorporating never-before-seen images from inside the Bagram, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons, and interviews with former government officials, interrogators, prison guards, New York Times reporters Tim Golden and Carlotta Gall and the families of tortured prisoners, TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE seeks to ask and answer a key question: what happens when a few men expand the wartime powers of the executive to compromise the very principles on which the United States was founded?

DVD EXTRAS:

Special Features tbc
Deleted scenes
Audio Commentary by Alex Gibney
Documents and photo gallery