"The Road To Guantanamo" may be the first feature-length film for Mat Whitecross as a director, but his collaborations with Michael Winterbottom stretch back over several years. Whitecross worked as assistant director and editor on Winterbottom films like "In This World," "Nine Songs" and "Code 46." His leap into directing came over drinks with Winterbottom one night at a pub; both men thought the story of how three boys from Tipton ended up incarcerated at Guantanamo would make an amazing movie, but Winterbottom was tied up in another project, so he told Whitecross: "You make it."

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"I thought he was just joking," said Whitecross in an interview with The Japan Times, "but suddenly it was happening."