''Taxi to the Dark Side'' is a 2007 American documentary film directed by

Alex Gibney Philip Alexander Gibney (; born October 23, 1953) is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, ''Esquire'' magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time". Gibney's works as director include '' ...

, and produced by Gibney,

Eva Orner Eva Orner is an Australian Academy Award, Academy and Emmy Award-winning film producer and director based in Los Angeles. Her works include ''Untold Desires'' (winner of Best Documentary at the Australian Film Institute Awards, the Logie Awa ...

, and Susannah Shipman. It won the 2007

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. It focuses on the December 2002 killing of an

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

driver named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in

extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

and interrogated at a black site at

Bagram air base Bagram Airfield-BAF, also known as Bagram Air Base , is located southeast of Charikar in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan. It is under the Afghan Ministry of Defense. Sitting on the site of the ancient Bagram at an elevation of above sea leve ...

. It was part of the '' Why Democracy?'' series, which consisted of ten documentary films from around the world questioning and examining contemporary democracy. As part of this series, the documentary was broadcast in over 30 countries from October 8–18, 2007. The BBC showed the film in its '' Storyville'' series.

Overview

''Taxi to the Dark Side'' examines US policy on torture and interrogation, specifically the CIA's use of torture and their research into

sensory deprivation Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses. Simple devices such as blindfolds or hoods and earmuffs can cut off sight and hearing, while more complex devices can al ...

. The film includes discussions against the use of torture by political and military opponents, as well as the defense of such methods; attempts by Congress to uphold the standards of the

Geneva Convention upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...

forbidding torture; and popularization of the use of torture techniques in TV shows such as '' 24''.

Plot

The documentary concerns the death of Dilawar, an Afghan peanut farmer, who gave up farming to become a taxi driver and who died after several days of beating at Bagram detention center. Dilawar left his home of

Yakubi Yaqubi is the center of Sabari District in Khost Province, Afghanistan. It is located on at 1,113 m altitude in the southeastern part of the district. See also * Khost Province Khost (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, l ...

in eastern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

in the autumn of 2002, investing his family money in a new taxi to make money in a larger city. On 1 December 2002 he and three passengers were handed over to US military officials by a local Afghan warlord, accused of organising an attack on

Camp Salerno Forward Operating Base Salerno is a former forward operating base used by the United States Armed Forces from 2002–2013 during Operation Enduring Freedom. It is located in the southeastern province of Khost, Afghanistan, near the city of Khos ...

. The warlord was later found guilty of the attack himself, but had been ingratiating himself (for $1000 per person) by handing over alleged terrorists. Dilawar was held at the prison at

Bagram Air Base Bagram Airfield-BAF, also known as Bagram Air Base , is located southeast of Charikar in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan. It is under the Afghan Ministry of Defense. Sitting on the site of the ancient Bagram at an elevation of above sea leve ...

, and given the prisoner number BT421. Chained from the ceiling, he received multiple attacks on his thighs, a standard technique viewed as "permissible" and non-life-threatening. It is likely that the severe attack caused a blood clot which then killed him. His official death certificate created by the US military to pass to his family, with his body, was marked "

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

". Medical conclusion stated that Dilawar's legs were "pulpified" and, had he lived, would have required amputation. The film explores the background of increasingly sanctioned torture following

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

in contravention of the

and looks at the exposure of

Abu Ghraib Abu Ghraib (; ar, أبو غريب, ''Abū Ghurayb'') is a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road t ...

. Interviews include Tim Golden of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' who brought the case into the international spotlight, and

Moazzam Begg Moazzam Begg ( ur, ; born 5 July 1968 in Sparkhill, Birmingham) is a British Pakistani who was held in extrajudicial detention by the US government in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, for ...

, a British citizen imprisoned at the same time, and witness to the events. Military interviewees include

Damien Corsetti Damien M. Corsetti was a soldier in the United States Army.Closing Arguments Se ...

the main interrogator, and Sgt. Anthony Morden. Cpt

Christopher Beiring Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει ...

explains how he was the only person charged (charged with dereliction of duty). The documentary claims that of the over 83,000 people incarcerated by US forces in Afghanistan up to 2007, 93 percent were captured by local militiamen and exchanged for US bounty payments. Also that 105 detainees had died in captivity and that 37 of these deaths had been officially classified as homicides up to 2007. The film also looks at

Guantánamo Bay Guantánamo Bay ( es, Bahía de Guantánamo) is a bay in Guantánamo Province at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the largest harbor on the south side of the island and it is surrounded by steep hills which create an enclave that is cut off ...

and how the same techniques were implemented there.

Release

The film premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on April 28, 2007.

Reception

Alex Gibney and the crew of Taxi to the Darkside at the 67th Annual Peabody Awards

''Taxi to the Dark Side'' appeared on some critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. ''

Premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

'' magazine named it the fifth best film of 2008, and Bill White of the ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...

'' named it the seventh-best film of 2008. The film also scored 100% for critic approval, out of 93 reviews on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 8.34/10. The site's consensus reads: "''Taxi to the Dark Side'' is an intelligent, powerful look into the dark corners of the War on Terror". It also has a score of 82 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, based on 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Awards

The film was named by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

as one of 15 films on its documentary feature Oscar shortlist in November 2007, and won the Oscar on February 24, 2008. In his acceptance speech for the "Best Documentary Feature"

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

, Gibney said: It also won a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

in 2007 "for its sober, meticulous argument that what happened to a hapless Afghani was not an aberration but, rather, the inevitable result of a consciously approved, widespread policy." Additionally, Gibney received the

Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing style In literature, writing style is the manner of expressing thought in language characteristic of an individual, period, school, or nation. As Bryan Ray notes, however, sty ...

at the 60th Writers Guild of America Awards.

Censorship allegations and legal disputes

In June 2007, the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

bought the rights to broadcast ''Taxi to the Dark Side''. However, in February 2008, it made public its intention never to broadcast the documentary due to its "controversial" nature and was accused of "censorship".

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

then bought pay to view rights to the film and broadcast it in September 2008, after which the Discovery Channel announced it would broadcast ''Taxi to the Dark Side'' in 2009. In June 2008, Gibney's company filed for arbitration, arguing that THINKFilm failed to properly distribute and promote the film following its release and Oscar win. He sued for damages, claiming that the film has grossed only $250,000 up to June 2008 due to inadequate promotion.

References

External links

Washington Post - Down a Dark Road
by Richard Leiby
BBC News - Torture film wins Tribeca award

Interview with ''Taxi to the Dark Side'' director Alex Gibney
at ''

Filmmaker Magazine ''Filmmaker'' is a quarterly publication magazine covering issues relating to independent film. The magazine was founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis. The magazine is now published by the IFP (Independent Film ...

''
Pullquote review
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taxi To The Dark Side 2007 films 2007 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about American politics Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Documentary films about crime Documentary films about human rights Documentary films about the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Peabody Award-winning broadcasts Films directed by Alex Gibney Documentary films about torture 2000s English-language films 2000s American films