Factual error: After Mohamedou's torture scenes, the CO of GITMO holds up a letter from the Dep. Of Defense in Mo's face, stating that his mother had been detained. In the bottom left corner of the letter, it is written as "Department of Defence", which is the UK spelling. (01:41:27)
The Mauritanian (2021)
Directed by: Kevin Macdonald
Starring: Tahar Rahim, Nouhe Hamady Bari, Saadna Hamoud
Continuity mistake: The sunglasses Nancy placed near the center right side of her yellow legal pad changed positions a couple times with camera shifts. Initially, the left lens was almost touching the legal pad and the right lens was at about a 45° angle. Seconds later, the sunglasses were further away from the legal pad. Next, the sunglasses were close and parallel to the legal pad, not angled. (IF Nancy had accidentally bumped her sunglasses with her elbow, they would have been pushed away from the legal pad). (00:18:02 - 00:18:30)
Continuity mistake: After Slahi signs the contract, the McDonald's bag logo is facing toward the right of the screen but was facing the opposite direction up to that point. (00:22:17)
Trivia: Translations for the Latin HABEAS CORPUS include "show me the body", "you have the body", "you should have the body", "produce the body", and "you shall have the body." The "body" in question refers to a person being held in detention or confinement and "show the body" refers to the judge/court being requested (petitioned) to bring the person to court to ascertain/assess the legality of the person's deprivation of liberty. No person should be deprived of liberty without "due process of law."
Trivia: The "writ of habeas corpus" used to be referred to as the "Great Writ." Despite its potential value of protecting against unlawful detention and indefinite confinement without due process of law, it has actually been suspended four times since ratified and detainees at Guantanamo Bay were not originally eligible to file a writ of habeas corpus because of where they were confined (i.e, in Cuba, not the United States).
Trivia: Critics assert a writ of habeas corpus no longer functions to protect people against unlawful detention. Instead, it enables the government to ignore Constitutional rights and engage in unlawful detention of certain people indefinitely - that is, at least until a writ of habeas corpus is actually filed and granted for review. This is similar to the view that the 4th Amendment does not protect against unreasonable searches and seizures - police can violate but not use anything seized in court.
Nancy Hollander: Didn't get your name.
Kent: Kent.
Nancy Hollander: Kent, what?
Kent: Kent. Tell you any more than that.
Nancy Hollander: Well, when I defended someone charged with rape, nobody called me a rapist. When I defended someone charged with murder, nobody dug around my backyard. When someone is accused of terrorism, people like you seem to think that that's different. It's not. When I stand by my client and I insist that he get a fair hearing, I'm not just defending him, I'm defending you and me. The constitution doesn't have an asterisk at the end that says : "Terms and conditions apply."
Nancy Hollander: I wanna know who's name I should cite when I contact the National Security desk at the New York Times. You tell your C.O, I don't wanna see my client in shackles ever again.
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