Sundance review: 'Jihad Rehab' profiles former Al Qaeda members trying to restart their lives — and, again, led astray by unfulfilled promises

Are former members of Al Qaeda beyond redemption? That’s what Meg Smaker’s documentary “Jihad Rehab,” and the Saudi facility to which she gains access, ask — and the answers are uncomfortable and illuminating.

Smaker got, for awhile, extraordinary access to the Mohammed Bin Naif Counseling and Care Center in Saudi Arabia. It boasts of being the only rehabilitation center for men accused of terrorism. And the three men Smaker follows through the system are all former members of Al Qaeda, recruited when they were teenagers.

The three men are all from Yemen, and arrive at the center after being released to the Saudis by the United States government — because these three were imprisoned at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

There’s no doubt, from their resumés, that these three were trouble. Nadir was a bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden, while Mohammed and Ali were both training at Al Qaeda camps. When Smaker introduces us to them, they have been in U.S. captivity for the last 15 or 16 years — and when they were released, they weren’t allowed to go to Yemen, which is being decimated by a civil war in which the Saudis have taken sides, using American-made arms.

The three are part of a 12-month program in which teachers try to root out the terrorist mindset and introduce the men to basic life skills they might have missed as an Al Qaeda trainee or Gitmo prisoner. The program boasts an 85% success rate in keeping graduates from returning to terrorism — which sounds good, until you think about the havoc the 15% could be creating.

The twist in Smaker’s narrative comes near the end of these ex-terrorists’ 12-month stint, when the center’s namesake — Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif — is overthrown by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who consolidated power and cracked down on dissidents and non-Saudis in the country, including the Yemenis we have been following.

Smaker’s interview subjects, both the former Gitmo detainees and the center’s staff, set some sort of personal record for most “would you look at the time?” Interview walkouts in a single movie. Even when they do talk, they’re not particularly forthcoming as they dodge questions about what they were doing before and immediately after the 9/11 attacks.

“Jihad Rehab” becomes less about the psychological training offered these men, but about the way the promises made to them — first by Osama bin Laden, and now by the Saudi government — are pulled out from under them by shifting politics. Whether they deserve what’s happening to them is for each viewer to decide.

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‘Jihad Rehab’

★★★

Premiered Saturday, January 22, in the U.S. Documentary competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Screens again on the festival portal, Monday, January 24, for a 24-hour window starting at 8 a.m. Not rated, probably PG-13 for images of war and terrorism. Running time: 112 minutes.