RALEIGH – Campbell Law School is hosting a free film screening for law students of the award-winning legal drama, “The Mauritanian,” at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at The Rialto Theatre.
Starring Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, Shailene Woodley and Benedict Cumberbatch, the film follows a case that tested the people entrusted with upholding the law.
The evening will continue with a Q&A led by Campbell Law alumnus National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Administrative Law Judge Stuart Couch ’96, the retired U.S. Marine Corps attorney portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film.
“The Mauritanian” is a 2021 legal drama film based on the life of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was held in Guantánamo for 14 years on suspicion that he was connected to the 9/11 terror attacks, according to Film Director Kevin Macdonald. Slahi was never charged.
“I see it as a film about him, as a very personal film, rather than as a political film,” said Macdonald about the movie filmed in South Africa and based on Slahi’s best-selling memoir, “Guantánamo Diary.”
In the fall of 2019, Couch called Campbell Law Dean J. Rich Leonard to let him know Cumberbatch would be playing Couch in a new movie called “The Mauritanian.” During the time of the movie’s setting, Couch was serving as a prosecutor at Guantánamo.
“I asked Stu, what would have been hanging in your office at the time?,” Leonard remembers. “He said my North Carolina law license and my Campbell Law diploma. So we had him send us copies and we had them blown up and framed and sent to the film crew along with half a dozen polos bearing the Campbell logo we had specially ordered.”
As a result, the Oscar-nominated Cumberbatch can be spotted in the film wearing a Campbell University-branded polo. Couch’s Campbell Law diploma and North Carolina law license are also hanging in Cumberbatch’s office in the film.
STXfilms released “The Mauritanian” in the U.S. on Feb. 21, 2021, and the law school hosted an exclusive online screening for alumni.
All Campbell Law students are invited to watch the film, and to stay afterward for the chance to hear from someone who was personally involved in the case.
Complimentary snacks and soft drinks will be available on site with the option to purchase other beverages.