‘The Mauritanian’ Director Kevin Macdonald on the Importance of Telling Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Story

With The Mauritanian now playing in select theaters, I recently got to speak with director Kevin Macdonald’s about making his powerful new film. Written by M.B. Traven, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani and based on the NY Times best-selling memoir “Guantánamo Diary” by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the film tells the inspiring true story of Slahi’s fight for freedom after being detained and imprisoned without charge by the U.S. Government for years. Led by an incredible lead performance by Tahar Rahim (who was recently nominated for a Golden Globe), the movie also stars Jodie Foster as Slahi’s defense attorney, Benedict Cumberbatch as the military prosecutor trying to convict Slahi, Shailene Woodley as Foster’s associate lawyer, and Zachary Levi as a CIA agent. During the interview, Macdonald talks about how he landed Jodie Foster for the film since she is very selective about her acting roles, the way they collaborated on the script, what it was like working with Rahim and crafting his prison scenes,