Extraordinary Rendition

When Zaafir is reciting dates of important historical events he says "Spanish Armada 1558.

" The date should be 1588.

Zafir historical dates recollection includes 'fall of Constantinople 1441 a.

Actual date is 1453 a.

A man is pulled off a London Street and taken to some foreign country where he is tortured as a terror suspect. Dull, banal film bored the hell out of me.

What you do if you have no story to tell is shoot some footage based around a current topic and hope that everybody will fill in the blanks. This tactic would probably be attributed to the character being kept in the dark, how convenient to base a plot on ignorance.

As 2007 British produced, minimalist drama Extraordinary Rendition rolls on, it eventually comes to find a sort of middle ground with both itself and its subject matter; the film an intermediate if overly and in a somewhat disappointing fashion, liberal effort depicting the sorts of negative energies and sensibilities that are born out of initial feelings of state-led hatred and paranoia. Here, the key is that state incurred hate and ill-minded attitudes placed unto its citizens it cannot trust can lead only onto further hatred; alienation and disillusionment, this time at the state on the citizen's behalf.

I read the case for this film and thought this sounds good. I check out reviews on here and thought could be very good but I was bitterly disappointed.

Life in the post 9/11 world is very complicated. During any time of war, the concept of friends and enemies is always at the forefront, and, although there may at times be some confusion over who fits where, for the most part in wartime friends and enemies are pretty well defined.

Rather shocking drama, even after seeing documentaries about torture at Guantanamo, the concept of extraordinary rendition and the Hollywood version "Rendition" released in the same year. I don't really get why the Hollywood version was made at all, and so shortly after this film was released.

This is a very good film that deals with an extremely challenging issue in a though provoking and humane way. This movie from first time director Jim Threapleton (I knew I recognised the name, him being the ex partner of Kate Winslett) is not easy viewing as it is not meant to be.

'Extraordinary Rendition' is a story about the kidnap and torture of foreign citizens by agents of the United States, in the context of suspected involvement of Islamic terrorism. But unlike Michael Winterbottom's 'The Road to Guantamano', which explored a similar theme, it eschews details for psychological insight into what it means to be tortured.

Where to begin, as we discuss "Extraordinary Rendition"? Perhaps it might be best to start with the film's positive aspects, and then move onto its negatives.