In a great story with The Mauritanian, Tahar Rahim plays Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a man who was kept at Guantanamo Bay without charge for years by the U.S. government because he was accused for being one of the major recruiters of the 9/11 attacks. The film opens with Slahi at a gathering in Mauritania in November 2001, where he gets picked up by the U.S. government in the middle of the night, promising his mother he would be right back. Instead, his family had no idea where he was for years; until they found out in 2005 that he was being held in Guantanamo Bay. This is when his case lands on the desk of lawyer Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster). She tries to get him out of Guantanamo (referred to as Gitmo throughout) using Habeas Corpus, since he’s never been charged with anything. On the other side is military lawyer Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch) for the prosecution who seeks out the death penalty.
