Stranger in a strange land

Indian-American political commentator Dinesh D’Souza has produced films before, namely politically conservative documentaries including Hillary’s America and his 2020 election-year release Trump Card: Beating Socialism, Corruption and the Deep State.

He’s back with a pandemic-delayed release of something different: Infidel, a genuine edge-of-your-seat thriller about an American journalist and Christian blogger named Doug Rawlins (Jim Caviezel) who is kidnapped by Hezbollah terrorists after he proselytizes about Christ while attending an interfaith conference in Cairo and is incarcerated in a brutal Iranian prison. The storyline revolves around his mistreatment and the heroic efforts of his wife (Claudia Karvan) and an underground network of sympathizers to liberate him.

The film claims to be “inspired by true events,” and that, arguably, is valid — insofar as journalists, preachers, and others have been kidnapped in the Middle East. Infidel doesn’t rise to the level of semibiographical, but it’s plausible nevertheless.

This action film has a political agenda — or perhaps two agendas. While it begins as a story about religious freedom — Rawlins gets abducted after speaking openly about Christ’s divinity to his Muslim audience — the focus shifts when Iranian prosecutors produce trumped-up charges that he is an American spy. That his wife works for the State Department lends credibility to the case. Despite the accusations and considerable physical and psychological abuse, Rawlins refuses to renounce Christ or to confess to espionage. His wife’s own abandonment of faith after a previous tragedy comes into play but without clear resolution.

Infidel shows no love for terror groups or for Iran, yet it’s not a sweeping indictment of the Muslim world. Rawlins’ betrayer is a friend who playfully calls him “infidel” but secretly has been radicalized. His lead captor, Ramzi (Hal Ozsan), is a scary man who reveals moments of humanity and has legitimate gripes with the West. As many Muslims collaborate in attempting to rescue Rawlins as to torture him. Infidel paints a complex picture that serves as a microcosm for the complexities in the West’s relations with the Muslim world today.

GERALD KORSON is a Legatus magazine staff writer.