Tonia, a singer in a sleazy night club is arrested by Poland's Stasi style security forces, the UBeks. Although it takes her many months to find the reason for this, it turns out to be a case of guilt by association. She was a social friend of a military officer thought to be a foreign agent.
This film deals with the power relationship between security forces and their captives. It deals with the methods of persuasion and torture used to obtain forced confessions for 'crimes' real or imagined. In this case the film is set in Poland under the control of Stalinist Russia but could also have been in any other country in the world, for instance in South America; Central America; Central African Republic; Germany; Japan; Cambodia; Abu Ghraib; Guantanamo Bay or Camp Iguana. For those unfamiliar with Camp Iguana, it is a special section of Guantanamo bay where the same harsh treatment is meted out to prepubescent enemy combatants. We know from such docu-dramas as Andrzej Wajda's Katyn and Elem Klimov's Come and See that neither one side nor the other is any better in this respect.
Tonia's main interrogator was so high ranking he wore a three piece chalk stripe suit instead of military uniform but his desk was in such a poor state he couldn't get the drawers to open properly. When he tried to find writing implements for Tonia to sign a fake confession, what he found inside would disgrace the school pencil case of any six year old. This film shows the tasks undertaken by the UBeks as so routine they would bore any factory machine minder. The only bout of real emotion by the interrogator is near the beginning of Tonia's captivity and its purpose is to establish the relationship between the two of them. But because of their brutal methods and unaccountability to anyone except the Party Chairman, they are accorded an elitist reputation. Their interrogation and torture continue unceasingly.
As the film develops, we are treated to an incident of what has become known as the Stockholm Syndrome. At one point, as the relentlessness of the interrogation continues, one of Tonia's captors lets her sleep instead of continuing the constant assault of her mind. This act of kindness results in a physical bond forming between them.
The only purpose of torture is torture for the sake of torture. The UBeks administer this quite implacably and if this is really how they get their rocks off, then they never show any emotion about it. This intolerable pressure is continued even after outside circumstances have eliminated the original reason for Tonia's arrest. An elitist organisation cannot admit to having got it wrong so they just carry on doing what they do best. Forced confessions have no real meaning and in this sense the security forces have little real practical purpose. As the material that came with the DVD expresses it, their true purpose is the rape of the human mind. This doesn't work, in Tonia's case and in the end we are left with the hope that she can reunite her family around her. This leaves her main captor with an intolerable decision.
Are the actions of the UBeks normal behaviour under any circumstances. Unfortunately, the Stanford Prison Experiment would suggest that they are, albeit in societies which are organised from the top down, as most world societies are. Those few which have been organised from the bottom up have never known such conditions.
Thomas Jefferson once said "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither" The purpose of a film like Interrogation is to say to those who purport to have our security and best interests at heart "We know who you are and we are watching."
This film deals with the power relationship between security forces and their captives. It deals with the methods of persuasion and torture used to obtain forced confessions for 'crimes' real or imagined. In this case the film is set in Poland under the control of Stalinist Russia but could also have been in any other country in the world, for instance in South America; Central America; Central African Republic; Germany; Japan; Cambodia; Abu Ghraib; Guantanamo Bay or Camp Iguana. For those unfamiliar with Camp Iguana, it is a special section of Guantanamo bay where the same harsh treatment is meted out to prepubescent enemy combatants. We know from such docu-dramas as Andrzej Wajda's Katyn and Elem Klimov's Come and See that neither one side nor the other is any better in this respect.
Tonia's main interrogator was so high ranking he wore a three piece chalk stripe suit instead of military uniform but his desk was in such a poor state he couldn't get the drawers to open properly. When he tried to find writing implements for Tonia to sign a fake confession, what he found inside would disgrace the school pencil case of any six year old. This film shows the tasks undertaken by the UBeks as so routine they would bore any factory machine minder. The only bout of real emotion by the interrogator is near the beginning of Tonia's captivity and its purpose is to establish the relationship between the two of them. But because of their brutal methods and unaccountability to anyone except the Party Chairman, they are accorded an elitist reputation. Their interrogation and torture continue unceasingly.
As the film develops, we are treated to an incident of what has become known as the Stockholm Syndrome. At one point, as the relentlessness of the interrogation continues, one of Tonia's captors lets her sleep instead of continuing the constant assault of her mind. This act of kindness results in a physical bond forming between them.
The only purpose of torture is torture for the sake of torture. The UBeks administer this quite implacably and if this is really how they get their rocks off, then they never show any emotion about it. This intolerable pressure is continued even after outside circumstances have eliminated the original reason for Tonia's arrest. An elitist organisation cannot admit to having got it wrong so they just carry on doing what they do best. Forced confessions have no real meaning and in this sense the security forces have little real practical purpose. As the material that came with the DVD expresses it, their true purpose is the rape of the human mind. This doesn't work, in Tonia's case and in the end we are left with the hope that she can reunite her family around her. This leaves her main captor with an intolerable decision.
Are the actions of the UBeks normal behaviour under any circumstances. Unfortunately, the Stanford Prison Experiment would suggest that they are, albeit in societies which are organised from the top down, as most world societies are. Those few which have been organised from the bottom up have never known such conditions.
Thomas Jefferson once said "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither" The purpose of a film like Interrogation is to say to those who purport to have our security and best interests at heart "We know who you are and we are watching."