Guy Ritchie's The Covenant

Guy Ritchie’s name sits inside the title for a trademark reason: it separates the film from an unrelated 2006 picture of the same name. The story rests not on a real case but a real problem; the closing card states that after the Taliban retook the country more than three hundred Afghan interpreters who worked with the US military were killed, thousands more in hiding. Halfway through, the enemy changes. Once evacuated, Kinley goes home to California and spends over a month failing to get visas for Ahmed and his family; the obstacle there is not the Taliban but the telephone and the paperwork. His decision to go back comes out of that deadlock, not a firefight. Anyone expecting continuous combat meets a long desk bound stretch. Nobody went to Afghanistan: it was shot in Spain, around Alicante in Petrer, Sax and Villajoyosa, and in Zaragoza. Dar Salim, who plays Ahmed, was born in Baghdad and came to Denmark as a refugee. It cost 55 million dollars and took 21.9 million worldwide. A good fit if you count Ritchie dropping interlocking timelines and verbal duelling for a plain debt story as a gain. Not for a viewer who wants Ahmed from his own point of view; the second half stays with Kinley and leaves him largely off screen.