With ‘The Mauritanian’ Snub, Oscars Missed an Opportunity to Spotlight Muslim Issues

STXfilms

One of 2021’s most honored films — nominated for five BAFTAs and a Critics’ Choice award, as well as the winner of a Golden Globe — and which features a star-studded cast including two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster and Benedict Cumberbatch, will be conspicuously absent in this year’s Oscars. “The Mauritanian” is the true story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (played by Tahar Rahim), a Guantanomo prisoner suffering torture and isolation in the Kafka-esque nightmare of the military prison.

The film also shines a light on the battles of the lawyers working for his freedom (Jodie Foster and Shailene Woodley), as well as Lt. Col. Stuart Crouch (Benedict Cumberbatch), a Marine lawyer charged with keeping Slahi incarcerated but wrestling with his Christian faith and the morality of the job he has been asked to do. The film is one of the first to honestly reckon with our nation’s role in violating international law, legalizing torture, and desecrating the Constitutional values we say we hold dear in the post-9/11 fervor.