In a spare room with white walls, a single window, and a plain wooden bench in its center, filmmakers Alison Maclean ("Jesus’ Son") and Tobias Perse interview twelve former detainees in America's War against Terror.
Archived clips show a bombastic Attorney General John Ashcroft, describing the necessary steps being taken to ensure Americans' safety. But what we see are recognizable human beings--husbands, fathers, brothers—-who talk simply and without affect about their horrific experiences in the hands of the American government.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, more than 5,000 people were taken into custody by the U.S. Justice Department; in "Persons of Interest," the staggering number takes on a new, more potent reality. Suddenly there are individuals, people with real names, real faces, real families, and their stories are consistently disturbing. All of the subjects in this film were imprisoned without evidence: a simple call reporting someone to be "suspicious," a couple of postcards of the World Trade Center taped to a deli case, a son in the possession of a popular flight simulator video game. Detentions ranged from a month to over a year and, in some cases, led to deportation.
The interviews are clearly unrehearsed. Some of the subjects are more articulate than others. In one of the film's lighter moments, Faiq Medraj, a deli worker, takes off his baseball cap before beginning his interview, looks at himself in the mirror, checks out his hair, and puts the cap back on. In another, the visibly happy children of Shokriea Yahgi, whose husband was deported to Jordan after a long detention, roughhouse as Maclean chases after them with her video camera.
"Persons of Interest" is intentionally without gloss. The stories speak for themselves.
