“From the beginning when I started writing it, I knew very much that I wanted to make it a very contained story about two people in one room,” says director Peter Sattler in the latest featurette for prison drama Camp X-Ray. “And not try and make it as this grandiose epic about Guantanamo Bay, and instead focus on the small story between two characters.”
At the centre of Sattler’s close-knit film is Kristen Stewart’s Private Amy Cole. A young Army soldier, she is drafted in as a Guantanamo Bay prison guard and upon arrival, she strikes up a strictly-forbidden friendship with one of the detainees, Ali (Peyman Moaadi.)
There’s certainly a lot going for the film, which boasts a reinvented Stewart. Back from a two-year hiatus, the actress has her sights set on re-establishing herself as a serious thesp with Camp, Oliver Assayas’ Clouds Of Sils Maria, and Drake Doremus’ sci-fi romance, Equals.
This sneak behind the scenes of the movie offers more insight into the preparations cast and crew took during the shoot. It’s nothing hugely insightful – mainly talking heads spouting about how great everybody is – but serves as a nice reminder that Stewart is making some unexpected career moves.
Camp X-Ray hits theatres and VOD on October 17th. Check out the plot summary below and video above and let us know what you think.
A young woman joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small town roots. But she ends up as a new guard at Guantanamo Bay instead, where her mission is far from black and white. Surrounded by hostile jihadists and aggressive squadmates, she strikes up an unusual friendship with one of the detainees. A story of two people, on opposite sides of a war, struggling to find their way through the ethical quagmire of Guantanamo Bay. And in the process, they form an unlikely bond that changes them both.
