Camp X-Ray

Peter Sattler's first film. The subject is Guantánamo, but the camera is neither in a courtroom nor in an interrogation room; it is in the corridor. Amy Cole is a young soldier who joined the army from a small town and is sent to Guantánamo as a guard. The job is walking past cells, counting, handing out books. There she learns why the men are called enemy combatants rather than prisoners: a prisoner has rights. Ali has been there eight years and has never been charged. A conversation starts between them through books; he wants the last volume of the Harry Potter series from the library and cannot get hold of it. The film puts that small request at its centre. Kristen Stewart plays Amy and Payman Maadi plays Ali. Anyone who knows Maadi from A Separation will find the same measured work here. It premiered at Sundance. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet drama that carries a political subject through two characters without raising its voice. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for incident. It happens almost entirely in the same corridor and the pace is deliberately low; and framing Guantánamo as an American soldier's test of conscience drew fair criticism.