Rendition (**Warning - Spoliers**)

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PS3psp

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Got this out on DVD last night. On the whole I was really enjoying it. Until it ended without answering a major question that my wife and I kept asking each other.

Why did they link Anwar to the bombing in the first place?

When they were interrogating and torturing him, they kept on going on about how the terrorist responsible for the bomb (think it was Rachid) had contacted Anwar several times on his mobile phone. Anwar always denied this (apart from the lie he told when he gave the names of the 1990 Egyptian Football Team).

So at the end, Jake Gyllenhall's character freed Anwar and he went home. All the time as Anwar was leaving, my wife and I were waiting for the big twist! Surely Anwar was actually guilty after all?! And Jake Gyllenhall was going to find out just as Anwar disappeared into the sunset, never to be caught again!!

But no.

He just went home to his family.

And they never explained why Anwar's phone had been implicated with calls from Rachid.

Such a weak ending to a potentially great film.

So did we miss something? Or did you feel as let down as we did?
 
Right at the beginning of the film Anwar receives a call on his mobile from an undisclosed number, which he assumes is he wife, but turns out to be a number which the CIA have registered as belonging to a terrorist group; and when he is being interrogated, Fawal produces a list of calls suppposedly made to Anwar's phone from the same number.
If you still have the DVD, watch the deleted scenes about the phone call subplot, with the commentary on, as that explains how mobile phones and numbers can be passed down from one person to another and can lead to people being wrongly implicated.

I read an interview with Gavin Hood where he said it was deliberately left unclear if Anwar was guilty or not. He could have been lying about the Egyptian football team to make himself look innocent, and Jake's character, being a rookie thrown in at the deep end, fell for it.
 
Thanks for the reply. I did actually notice that bit at the start about the missed call and assumed that had something to do with it.

Sadly I don't still have the DVD so can't watch the deleted scenes. I'm surprised they removed that stuff though. To me, it seems highly relevant to the story!
 
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