Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Last night, Taxi to the Dark Side premiered on HBO. The Oscars' "Best Documentary" reveals in disturbing detail how the US government condoned torture in the wake of 9/11, first in Guantanamo and then in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the sweeping policy narrative is anchored in the smaller story of the driver of the titular taxi: Dilawar, a young Afhgani man who had never spent a day apart from his father and mother until he was arrested and delivered to the US military. Five days later he was dead.

We know Dilawar's story thanks to the dogged reporting of New York Times journalists Carlotta Gall and Tim Golden. They looked past the official line, in which Dilawar died of "natural causes," and found that he was beaten until his legs "had been pulpified" by interrogators who believed him to be innocent; that the coroner ruled his death a homicide; and that the practices that led to his death, ranging from forced standing and sleep deprivation to sexual and physical assault, were common at Bagram Prison.

The eventual criminal case didn't focus on the higher-ups who made the abuse possible, nor did it focus on Dilawar. He was "nearly invisible" at the trial: there were no photos of him and no mention of his family. But the power of this film is a testament to the importance of his story. As one interviewee says in the movie:

"There are a lot of people that are going to run into this system unless it get fixed. You only need one to remind yourself of what it's capable of."

Watch the trailer:

And watch the whole film on HBO; it's scheduled to play through the end of October.