“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 stellar performances from Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch, and, most crucially,
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 film hinges on the performance of its’ titular Mauritanian, the French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim, who plays Mohamedou Ould Slahi,
