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Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, The
EMAILPRINTRed Envelope Entertainment
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by:
Petra Epperlein
Michael Tucker
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 23, 2007
Running Time: 72 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany / USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some strong language and mature thematic elements
Starring Yunis Khatayer Abbas
In an absurd comedy of errors, a freedom-loving Iraqi journalist is mistaken as Tony Blair's would-be assassin and sent to Abu Ghraib Prison where he discovers the true meaning of liberation. (Red Envelope Entertainment)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Gunner Palace
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The style is brash, and it works. Tucker and Epperlein illustrate Yunis' account of his eight-month imprisonment, much of that time spent at the notorious Abu Ghraib compound, with literal illustrations--pages seemingly torn out of a Frank Miller graphic novel.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Eight months of interrogation and torture in fetid Abu Ghraib followed before he was released, innocent. None of The Prisoner's showy flourishes -- animation, sound effects, fancy editing -- can match the power of Abbas' stillness as he describes one man's agony in one huge hell.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Merle Bertrand
War is chaos and confusion even under the best of circumstances, of which this current fiasco clearly ain’t. The Prisoner… underscores this fact, as well as muddying up the waters on such commonly accepted platitudes as "Support the Troops."
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
A modestly mounted, but curiously poignant little documentary... which somehow -- quietly, devastatingly -- shows and tells you more than you may perhaps want to know about the dehumanization implicit in the mighty, blighted Iraqi adventure.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
While the documentary isn't as compelling as its source material, Abbas tells an interesting story about his incarceration.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
It's an angry story, but also a strangely hopeful one, in the sense of new life sprouting through a battlefield. Above all, it's personal and specific, and that IS news we can use.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
The film leaves us wondering about all the war stories we haven't heard.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
The Prisoner is in many ways a justifiably angry film, simmering with moral outrage. But it is also -- surprisingly, maybe even amazingly -- hopeful.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michelle Orange
Yunis, as he imploringly reminds us, is the Iraqi people, but he is also steeped in Hollywood references, pulling analogies for the U.S. occupation from "Rambo" and "Dirty Harry."
Read Full Review >Washington Post Philip Kennicott
It is a film rich in detail, the kind that simply never emerges in the nightly news accounts of the war.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
What's troubling about the film's technique is its lack of context; we must take Yuris, who speaks serviceable English, pretty much at his word. What's troubling about his story is its ring of truth.
Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
The very concept of such an assassination isn't so absurd as to be wacky – at least not since somebody fired a rocket at UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last Thursday.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
By recounting Abbas' ordeal as an endless inarticulate monologue, The Prisoner reduces it to a dull anecdote--timely and relevant, perhaps, but an anecdote all the same.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
It is a depressing story, certainly, as well as moving, confusing and, at a fast 72 minutes, at once undercooked and overpadded.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen
The film becomes a dizzying descent into a world of contradictions, military illogic and ineffectual bureaucracy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
His story demands to be heard, though Tucker and Epperlein lack the material for a full feature and pad this out to 73 minutes with some incongruously playful elements (spy music, comic-book illustrations, scenes of Abbas frolicking at a beach).
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Adam H. gave it a10:
This film is a sequel of sorts to "Gunner Palace" the Iraq film that came out in 2005. Much like that film, The Prisoner is not overtly political, rather, it lets the characters tell the story. In Gunner Palace, the perspective is the American soldier. In The Prisoner, the perspective is largely Iraqi. The films should be watched together to fully appreciate. I don't want to give away too much, but I can say that you walk away from this film feeling like you know an Iraqi and have a new sense of just how much the Iraqi people suffered--both under Saddam and during this conflict. The film is also surprisingly funny and it should come with a disclaimer that gives the audience permission to laugh. It would be funny if it wasn't true.
Lara gave it a10:
I saw this film at a New School/WNYC hosted screening in New York last night and had to share how overwhelmingly moving nad strangely uplifting it was. Go see this movie if you want a glimmer of hope that people in this country can sympathize with people in others and we can actually come together in times of great trouble. The filmmaking was completely entertaining and the film funny, almost hilarious at times. 5 stars!
