Strip Search (film)

Strip Search
Written by	Tom Fontana
Directed by	Sidney Lumet
Starring	Glenn Close Maggie Gyllenhaal Ken Leung Bruno Lastra Dean Winters
Theme music composer	Paul Chihara
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Mark A. Baker Irene Burns
Cinematography	Ron Fortunato
Editor(s)	Tirsa Hackshaw Tom Swartwout
Running time	56 minutes [1]
Release
Original network	HBO
Original release	April 27, 2004 (2004-04-27)

Strip Search is a drama film made for the HBO network, first aired on April 27, 2004. The film explores the status of individual liberties in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the approval of the USA PATRIOT Act. The film was directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Oz creator Tom Fontana. It stars Glenn Close, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ken Leung, Bruno Lastra and Dean Winters. The film was first screened at the Monaco Film Premiere with Lumet in person presenting it, in the presence of Fontana.

Plot

The film is built around two main parallel stories, each containing almost identical dialogues. One story line involves Linda Sykes (Gyllenhaal), an American woman detained in the People's Republic of China, being interrogated by a military officer (Leung). In the other storyline, Sharif Bin Said (Lastra), an Arab man detained in New York City, is interrogated by two FBI agents (Winters and Close). Both characters are graduate students detained with no hard evidence and interrogated about unspecified activities which may or may not be related to terrorist plots.

In the course of the increasingly brutal interrogations, both Sykes and Bin Said are strip searched against their will by their interrogators and are subjected to a cavity search. In both cases the protagonists appear to have only tenuous connections with the suspected terrorist plots.

The film ends with the question: "Must security and safety come at the price of freedom?"

Cast

References

External links

• Strip Search at the Internet Movie Database
• HBO Films Home: Strip Search at the Wayback Machine (archived January 9, 2010)
• Strip Search DVD on Amazon.com