Movies: A Hot New Crop of Docs

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Michael Winterbottom, who co-directed the movie with Mat Whitecross, has fashioned a most adventurous filmography. He has made period tragedies (Jude) and comedies (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story), but his true métier is the political docudrama set in lands scorched by war: Bosnia for Welcome to Sarajevo, Afghanistan for In This World. The Road to Guantánamo is his most unsparing statement yet of war's brutalizing effect on both the prisoner and his jailer.

"It either destroys you or makes you stronger," Iqbal says of his incarceration. "I think it made me stronger." If the movie's remorseless depiction of this nightmare doesn't shock audiences into numbness--United 93 is a Hallmark card compared with this horror show--they may be inspired by the stubborn bravery of Iqbal and his friends. Documents like this are supposed to open our eyes, even if we would rather shut them to the awful realities on view. Release date: June 23