Interview

Director

“The Mauritanian” Director Kevin Macdonald on Telling Mohamedou Slahi’s Story

The Mauritanian director Kevin Macdonald has plumbed the depths of state-sanctioned terror before, notably in his riveting 2006 film The Last King of Scotland, featuring a ferocious performance by Forest Whitaker playing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. His work in The Mauritanian might seem, on first blush, to be another trip to the dark side. Yet Macdonald’s film, led ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  March 16, 2021

Interview

Actor

Tahar Rahim on Playing With Brutal Truths in “The Mauritanian”

The Mauritanian boasts performances from Jodie Foster, a legend who has earned the right to be picky about her roles, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Shailene Woodley. All are predictably excellent—Foster as the dogged defense attorney Nancy Hollander, Cumberbatch as the military prosecutor Stuart Couch, and Woodley as Hollander’s tenacious assistant Teri Duncan. Yet director Kevin Macdonald’s ...

By Bryan Abrams  |  March 10, 2021