by Abhi Parasher
The film premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and had a future on the esteemed line-ups of the Toronto International Film Festival and South by Southwest. For all intents and purposes, Jihad Rehab was on track for a golden festival run.
“As soon as Sundance announced the film, the attacks on the film started,” Smaker recalls. “It all started with this group of six filmmakers who had made assumptions about the film without knowing what it was about.”
Jihad Rehab, renamed The UnRedacted, follows a group of men trained by al-Qaeda who are transferred from Guantanamo and sent to the world’s first rehabilitation centre for “terrorists” located in Saudi Arabia.
Smaker follows three Yemeni men over a few years of sit-down interviews and unprecedented access to their rehabilitation process. The years of footage, condensed into a nearly two-hour documentary, reveals the humanity and reality of people often relegated to the term ‘savages’.
“The narrative around the war on terror was that these people are psychopaths from a religion of violence. If you are making decisions based on those beliefs, then you begin fighting a problem you don’t understand and that makes things way worse.”
One key line from The UnRedacted encapsulates the film’s purpose. “They ask me how did you go to Iraq? How did you go to jihad? How did you bomb? But no one ever asks me why,” says Nadir, one of the Yemeni men interviewed in the film.
Nadir’s words speak to the necessity of Smaker’s documentary. “The what is done. You can’t undo the what. But if you understand the why, you will be able to better address the problem moving forward,” she says.
The narrative surrounding the film following Sundance’s announcement was far from enthusiastic. Criticism of The UnRedacted ranged from accusations of Saudi propaganda to the controversy of a white filmmaker at the helm. Unfortunately, many of the people behind these criticisms were found to have not watched the film and most disregarded Smaker’s own experience.
“I lived in Yemen for five years and Saudi for three years.” As a former firefighter, Smaker spent her time in Yemen training Yemenis in modern firefighting techniques.
The film premiered at Sundance in 2022, which due to COVID, was virtual. “Because the film premiered virtually at Sundance, followed by it being media blacklisted, not a lot of people got to watch it. So, the framing around the film was the only reference people had,” explains Smaker. “The best defence of the film is to actually watch it because it will show people that all the criticism is actually the opposite to what the film is about.”
The defence of the film was thwarted when South by Southwest disinvited the film and Toronto International Film Festival revoked its initial offer to consider The UnRedacted. Perhaps the most significant setback surfaced when The UnRedacted’s key financial backer, Abigail Disney, renounced her support of the film. Her disapproval seems to have come after the backlash, rather than a result of the film itself. After a screening, Disney sent Smaker a glowing review.
However, it was Sundance’s apology that was the last straw. “Once Sundance apologised not once, but twice, it pretty much killed the film,” Smaker recalls. “The only reason we are able to get the film out is because of a grassroots campaign from strangers.”
The grassroots campaign was formalised as a GoFundMe from Smaker, which to date has amassed $766,876. The funds have helped Smaker self-distribute the film. The traction was further driven by key investigative articles in The New York Times, The Atlantic and The Los Angeles Times.
“After those pieces were published, a lot of people reached out to me offering help. The GoFundMe allows more people to see it and every time we have a screening, we are able to gain more supporters. I think that is because people are desperate to have the nuanced and complex discussion that this film starts.”
The UnRedacted recently sold out in New Zeeland and will be making its way to Australian screens soon, with the first screening on 30 April at Kino Cinemas. A Q&A with Smaker will follow all screenings.
For more information and links to tickets, visit https://jihadrehab.com/.
