Showtime released the trailer for the new documentary film Detainee 001, directed by Emmy®-winner Greg Barker (The Final Year, Sergio, Manhunt, Legion of Brothers). The film unpacks the mysteries surrounding the young American man, John Walker Lindh, found on the battlefield in Afghanistan alongside the people who were supposed to be his enemy. The story reveals how society views the “enemy from within” and the shifting allegiances during the war on terror.
Detainee 001 premieres on Showtime on Friday, September 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Drawing on unique access to the world of Intelligence and special operations, Detainee 001 pieces together the defining yet barely-remembered origin story of post-9/11 America. From the battlefield to the courtroom, Barker’s film confronts the unresolved issues at the heart of Lindh’s case, including his role in the uprising that led to the first American casualty of the war in Afghanistan, CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann.
“Through Greg Barker’s penetrating and haunting film, we relive a saga that so tightly gripped the United States and caused so much pain and rumination in the moment,” said Malhotra. “In reexamining the case of John Walker Lindh, we process two decades of conflict and contradiction in our foreign policy and moral philosophy, while guiding the spotlight back – 20 years later – to one of the most important and overlooked impacts of that fateful day in 2001.”
“I’ve made a lot of films about our post-9/11 era, but for me, the surreal story of John Walker Lindh remains the most haunting and mysterious,” said Barker. “Over the four years we made this film, I came to see Lindh’s journey as a kind of origin story for our post-9/11 world, and a cautionary tale of how the toxic mix of xenophobia, undemocratic behavior and distortions of justice can devalue the very foundations of our society. Plus, this story is also a documentary filmmaker’s dream – packed with incredible archival footage and a gripping true story from the almost-forgotten past that speaks directly to world we live in today.”
Barker is an Emmy-winning director, writer, and producer. His directorial documentary credits include The Final Year, Sergio and Ghosts of Rawanda. Prior to his filmmaking career, Barker worked as a journalist in conflict zones across the Middle East.