The Oath at New Directors/New Films

For a few weeks each spring, MoMA and Lincoln Center screen movies as part of their New Directors/New Films series, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's also a relatively cheap-and-easy way to see movies that might not get a wide release, including Laura Poitras's documentary, The Oath. Here, Poitras intertwines the stories of Abu Jandal, a taxi driver in Yemen who once worked as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, Jandal's brother-in-law, on trial in Guantanamo. Jandal, a skilled media manipulator, counsels aspiring jihadis in conversations both franker and more complex than most Americans probably imagine, while US Navy lawyer Brian Mizer, who comes off as just about the most honorable person alive, struggles to save Hamdan from a miscarriage of justice. Although Poitras could have used a slightly sharper eye in the editing booth --- a section about interrogation techniques goes nowhere and says nothing new --- the film as a whole shines a much-needed light into a murky, always-receding corner.

Photo: thanks