Goethe-Kino: Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush

Tuesday, 08/09/2026 | 6.00 pm 
Goethe-Institut Irland, 37 Merrion Square

Director: Andreas Dresen, 118 Minutes, Germany, 2022
Language: German with English subtitles

No booking required, first come, first served.

In November 2001, Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish national born and raised in Germany, was arrested during a routine check while visiting Pakistan. Suspected of being a terrorist, he was sent to the notorious U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo in early 2002. But although his innocence is soon established, he remains in custody because the Turkish government does not intervene and the German government rejects a corresponding offer from the Americans. Meanwhile, Kurnaz’s mother, Rabiye, begins a seemingly hopeless fight to secure her son’s release: Together with human rights lawyer Bernhard Docke, she files a lawsuit against the U.S. government. This courageous step propels the Turkish housewife from her row house in Bremen straight into the world of politics. The grueling legal battle drags on for years and takes the Kurnaz-Docke duo all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Presented by Goethe-Institut Irland.