Review by Paul Benedek
The President Versus David Hicks
Written and directed by Curtis Levy & Bentley Dean
Screening nationally
"When we took on this film project we were going to follow the legal proceedings around the arrest of David Hicks", filmmaker Curtis Levy told the Sydney opening night of The President Versus David Hicks. "After several months, it became clear that wouldn't be possible — there weren't going to be any legal proceedings."
The President Versus David Hicks traces the journey of David Hicks' father Terry Hicks, as he searches for answers as to why his son is being held without charge and without legal rights or representation in a small cage at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base.
David's story is told through his letters home. Having been affected by watching Muslims being killed in Kosova, he travelled and joined the Kosova Liberation Army. Hicks travelled continued to Pakistan, Kashmir and on to Afghanistan, as his interest in Islam grew.
Terry Hicks traces his son's footsteps across the world, using David's letters as a guide. But Terry Hicks' journey is also a struggle for justice and truth.
"These people [Guantanamo detainees] are terrorists, killers. They only know a country when its weak and they want to occupy it like a parasite", US President George Bush proclaimed.
But legal experts, human rights organisations, and many others disagree with Bush's claims. "Once you have a situation where people can't go to a court to test why they're being held, you have the beginnings of a police state", an attorney states, while the extent of undemocratic practices — allowing evidence obtained through torture, military-appointed lawyers and judges, and more — are revealed.
The President Versus David Hicks is thoroughly honest and compelling. Terry Hicks has never been a political activist — he is simply a loving father seeking justice in adversity. He was so determined to see some justice that he traveled to New York, erected a cage identical in size to that imprisoning his son in Guantanamo, and stood for hours in the cage on a busy street, to draw attention to his son's plight.
David Hicks emerges a very real, complex person. Terry doesn't ask for his son to be freed unconditionally — but that he be charged if he has committed a crime, and given the right to defend himself. Under particular fire is the Australian government's dismal unwillingness to push that its citizens be returned, which even London has done.
On the night the film opened in Sydney, Hicks' fellow Australian incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Mamdouh Habib, was telling his wife of the sleep deprivation and torture he was experiencing — until the call was cut off. Habib begged his wife not to send any more family photos — Habib's lawyer later explaining that they are used in "interrogation".
At the Sydney opening, Terry Hicks stressed that his primary concern is the release of all incarcerated in Guantanamo — not just Hicks and Habib, but also the over 500 others. Fellow filmmaker Bentley Dean announced, to cheers, that Terry Hicks had been nominated for father of the year. If unassuming humanity and the quest for justice are taken into account, he should be a sure thing.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 25, 2004.
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