
Documentary maker Meg Smaker hopes that British film audiences will help her where those in the US could not. Her film The UnRedacted, about ex-Guantanamo Bay inmates undergoing “rehab” in Saudi Arabia, screens this week at an indie cinema in north London, its first British outing since premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Given the film’s many rave reviews, a seven-day run at the ArtHouse Crouch End may seem a somewhat low-key release. A clue as to why lies in one of the reviews quotes on the film’s poster. It hails it as a “masterpiece”, but adds: “Don’t let anyone tell you how to feel about it until you see it yourself.”














It happened recently in the Italian town of Sora. As workers were putting up Christmas lights in the town center, a man ventured by and began screaming, “Allahu akbar.” Everyone present was terrified, contravening the American media dictum that “Allahu akbar” is an entirely benign phrase that shouldn’t worry anyone. How did these Italians get so