Kristen Stewart plays a Guantanamo Bay prison guard

Marshall de Hutton | Editor

Someone made a movie about Guantanamo Bay starring Kristen Stewart.

Throughout next week, “Camp X-Ray” (2014) will screen at The Digital Gym in North Park. In it, writer/director Peter Sattler puts a dramatic spin on an often-unexplored cinematic subject, the high-security Camp X-Ray in the infamous Guantanamo Bay.

The 117-minute film follows a new army private, Amy Cole (Kristen Stewart), as she adapts to a short stint as a Guantanamo Bay guard. Through it, she learns the world isn’t as black and white as she perceived, as she comes to understand the mindset of one particular detainee with a rebellious streak.

A quick glance at the title, however, may hint at a grittier movie than the actual product. Camp X-Ray did indeed exist at Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), but only for a short, three-month period in 2002. It was a temporary camp meant to hold the worst of the worst while the larger Camp Delta was being constructed. The film itself uses the military prison as a backdrop for a more personal drama, rather than an examination of the facility itself.

In “Camp X-Ray,” the film, Cole is assigned to the camp around 2010, eight years after its fictional opening and actual closing. The setting seems more likely based off one of the higher-security camps within Camp Delta, although the historical inaccuracy is of little consequence here.

Upon arriving for assignment, she first encounters her crass and boisterous commanding officer Ransdell (Lane Garrison), who becomes a source of hostility after a short-lived personal connection. Embodying all the popular critiques of GTMO — bigoted, cruel, blindly patriotic — Garrison’s one-dimensional portrayal is perhaps the film’s most believable.

Guantanamo Bay, for those who have avoided the subject, is a military prison based in Cuba that opened in 2002 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent conflict in the Middle East. President George W. Bush opened the base in Cuba reportedly to elude U.S. legal jurisdiction, which guarantees protections under the Geneva Convention (international law dictating humanitarian treatment of prisoners of war). The U.S. Supreme Court partially ruled against this Geneva Convention loophole, and President Barack Obama has scaled back the camp’s operations since taking office, but it continues to remain a source of controversy for interrogation methods and conditions that detainees are subjected to.

Through the media, our glimpse into the hearts and minds of detainees — not “prisoners,” as Ransdell clarifies during Cole’s orientation — is fragmented and brief. It’s hard to picture these men and boys as more than numbers — faceless names we’ve wronged in the name of national security. This film seeks to remove that facelessness, and it does so through Detainee 471, or Ali (Peyman Moaadi), the inmate who penetrates Cole’s icy, mumbling demeanor.

Ali is far from what one would consider a typical GTMO resident. He is an Arabic Muslim, sure, but he also hails from Germany, speaks English fluently, is a big Harry Potter fan (an overplayed plot device of the film), and mysteriously maintains a well-trimmed beard and short, combed hair. The majority of current GTMO detainees come from Yemen, where just 9 percent of the population speaks English.

When Ali, a middle-aged, eight-year veteran of GTMO, first encounters Cole, or “Blondie” as he quickly nicknames her, he’s affable and talkative, downright cheery even. Soon, however, Cole gets an unsavory taste of his rebellious side when he flings his feces onto her after a minor dispute. She then takes a probably illegal gander at his files to find a long history of rebellion dating back to his detainment in 2002.

The feces flinging is forgiven, and the two quickly forge a friendship that leads to newfound understanding, exploration of right and wrong, and inevitably, an ample serving of GTMO drama.

Moaadi, with his ability to switch from bright and funny to manic and sordid, is by far the film’s strongest presence. Best known as a screenwriter in his parents’ native country of Iran, he provides needed depth to allow the narrative to do more than skim the surface of a tough subject.

Finally, let’s speak briefly about Kristen Stewart. Her temperament and emotional range do not differ considerably from past roles: She is still awkward, frigid and uncomfortable. The thesis for her character seemed to be: “What if we plopped in an insecure college freshman to play a Guantanamo Bay prison guard?”

Private Cole looks and feels out of place throughout the movie, and her attempts to fit into Guantanamo Bay’s inflexible system fail quickly. These qualities are what make her character endearing. She’s how we’d imagine ourselves in such a situation, faced with carrying out an inhumane task for the sake of a greater, unknown good. Sure, she’s her usual, flinching self, but that’s the point: She’s relatable.

Some may have liked to see the film explore the military prison’s more controversial practices, such as its interrogation methods or forced feedings, in more than a peripheral way, but the attempt of “Camp X-Ray” to humanize America’s forgotten prisoners of war is a commendable focus.

Finally, kudos to Kristen Stewart for emerging from the cultural desert of “Twilight” to make a movie on such a deserving subject.

“Camp X-Ray” plays at the Digital Gym, 2921 El Cajon Blvd. (North Park), from Nov. 7 – 13. For showtimes, tickets and further information, visit digitalgym.org.

—Comuníquese con Hutton Marshall en [email protected].