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(France)
A BIM release (in Italy) of a Galatee Films/StudioCanal
production. (International sales: Wild Bunch, Paris.) Produced by Alain
Brigand. Color/b&w photography. Dolby SRD.
Episodes in order of appearance: 1. Executive producer, Makhmalbaf Film
House. Directed, written by Samira Makhmalbaf.
2. Executive producer, Tania Zazulinsky for Les Films 13. Directed by
Claude Lelouch. Screenplay, Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven.
3. Executive producer, Gabriel, Mariane Khoury for Misr Intl. Films. Directed,
written by Youssef Chahine.
4. Executive producer, Cedomir Kolar. Directed, written by Danis Tanovic.
5. Executive producers, Nicolas Cand for Les Films de la Plaine. Directed,
written by Idrissa Ouedraogo.
6. Executive producer, Rebecca O’Brien for Sixteen Films. Directed
by Ken Loach. Screenplay, Paul Laverty, Loach, Vladimir Vega.
7. Directed, written by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Executive producers,
Pelayo Gutierrez for Zeta Film, Shelly Townsend. Editors, Robert Duffy,
Kim Bica; music, Gustavo Santaolalla, Osvaldo Golijov.
8. Directed by Amos Gitai. Executive producer, Laurent Truchot. Screenplay,
Gitai, Marie-Jose Sanselme.
9. Directed by Mira Nair. Executive producers, Lydia Dean Pilcher, Emily
Gardiner. Screenplay, Sabrina Dhawan.
10. Directed and written by Sean Penn. Executive producer, Jon C. Scheide
for CIH Shorts Production.
11. Directed by Shohei Imamura. Executive producers, Nobuyuki Kajikawa
for Imamura Productino, Catherine Dussart for CDP, Masato Shinada, Masamichi
Sawada for Comme des Cinemas. Screenplay, Daisuke Tengan.
Episodes in order of appearance: 1. With: Maryam Karimi.
Farsi dialogue.
2. With: Emmanuelle Laborit, Jerome Horry.
3. With: Nour el-Cherif, Ahmed Seif Eldine.
4. With: Dzana Pinjo, Aleksandar Seksan, Tatjana Sojic.
5. With: Lionel Zizreel Guire, Rene Aime Bassinga, Lionel Gael Folikoue,
Rodrigue Andre Idani, Alex Martial Traore.
6. With: Vladimir Vega.
English dialogue.
8. With: Keren Mor, Liron Levo, Tomer Russo.
9. With: Tanvi Azmi, Kapil Bawa, Taleb Adlah.
10. With: Ernest Borgnine.
11. With: Tomorowo Taguchi, Kumiko Aso, Akira Emoto, Mitsuko Baisho, Tetsuro
Tanba.
An omnibus movie made by 11 of the world's au courant directors, "11'09"01
-- September 11" is a sober, thought-provoking response to a tragedy
of worldwide import and a much better film than one might expect from
the pre-release publicity. Included among the 11 segments in the Galatee
Films/StudioCanal production, which are linked only by theme, are many
emotionally moving pieces that powerfully evoke the tragic day without
being exploitative. The gist of the film, if one can be found in such
diverse works, might be the deep sense of horror felt around the world
from the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Towers and Pentagon
and broader, global implications of such an act. Though it commands the
viewers' attention for most of its two-hour-plus running time, it is hardly
an easy film to watch and contains some very anguishing moments that will
put off casual moviegoers. However, its release in most territories through
arthouse distributors can count on the news interest pic is bound to stir
up.
Clearly the filmmakers' concerns are much more complex than simply staging
a made-for-TV memorial homily. Although at least two segments voice criticisms
of American foreign policy, reports that the film is anti-American in
focus are greatly exaggerated.
The most controversial and confused episode is that of Egyptian vet Youssef
Chahine, who sets up actor Nour el-Sharif as his alter ego, a filmmaker
called Youssef Chahine. He is too upset over the events in New York to
go through with the press conference for his film, scheduled the following
day.
Instead he takes a solitary walk in which he imagines talking to a young
American soldier killed in Beirut in 1983 and buried at Arlington National
Cemetery. With this ghost, Chahine visits the home of a Palestinian suicide
bomber of the same age, whose family is proud of his sacrifice.
The point is not to condone the bomber, however. Rather clumsily Chahine
recalls the suffering of the Palestinian people and the deaths caused
by America, from Hiroshima to Vietnam. He'd like to reconstruct the World
Trade Towers, but the dead cannot be resurrected.
Other episodes, like French helmer Claude Lelouch's moving anecdote about
a man who sets out to lead a group of tourists through the Towers and
comes back covered with ashes and in shock, or the Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez
Inarritu's anguishing flashes on bodies falling from the Towers, use the
power of cinema to make familiar images reverberate again.
Indian director Mira Nair recounts a true story of Sept. 11, that of a
New York Pakistani family whose missing son, Mohamad Salman Hamdani, was
suspected by police of being one of the terrorists. Only months later
when his body was discovered among the wreckage was he revealed to be
a heroic police cadet who had rushed to the scene to help.
The double edge of Nair's story, in which Americans are not only victims
of terrorism but are in some measure culpable, finds an echo in one of
the most shocking segments, that of militant English director Ken Loach.
Chilean exile Vladimir Vega writes an open letter to the American people
from his London home, offering condolences for their loss, and recalling
that 28 years earlier, on precisely Sept. 11, 1973, elected Chilean president
Salvador Allende was murdered in General Auguste Pinochet's coup d'etat,
financed and approved by President Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger. It ranks among Loach's finest film work.
Four other episodes focus, in completely different ways, on how local
tragedies took precedence over the one in America. In the film's opener,
young Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf shows a camp of Afghan refugees
(there are 3 million living in Iran, she tells us) whose main worry is
that America is going to start bombing them.
An educated young teacher tells them that "bricks won't shelter you
from an atomic bomb." Instead she convinces her pre-school age pupils
to stand at the foot of the smoking brick kiln and observe a minute of
silence in honor of those killed on Sept. 11.
Another excellent tale, whose sadness is masked by its humor, comes from
Burkina Faso's Idrissa Ouedraogo. A young boy who can't afford to buy
pencils for school or medicine for his dying mother thinks he spots Osama
bin Laden on the street. Knowing his capture is worth $25 million, he
enlists his friends to corner him with bows and arrows.
Danis Tanovic from Bosnia links Sept. 11 with the massacre of Srebrenica,
a tragedy that the heroine won't allow America's to overshadow, while
Israel's Amos Gitai puts it in relation to the "smaller" one
of a terrorist bombing in Tel Aviv.
Sean Penn's story features a touching solo perf by Ernest Borgnine as
a widower who is so completely wrapped up in the personal tragedy of losing
his wife that he doesn't notice the collective drama going on outside
his window.
Japanese master Shohei Imamura wraps up the film with an odd and apparently
unrelated story. A Japanese soldier returns from the horrors of WWII convinced
he is a snake. "There is no such thing as a holy war," film
concludes.
Episodes in order of appearance: 1. Camera Ebrahim Ghafori;
editor, Mohsen Makhmalbaf; music, Mohamad Rezadarvishi; sound, Hassan
Mahdavi.
2. Camera, Pierre-William Glenn; editor, Stephane Mazalaigue; sound, Jean-Charles
Martel.
3. Camera, Mohsen Nasr; editor, Rashida Abd Elsalam. Arab dialogue.
4. Camera, Mustafa Mustafic; editor, Monique Rysselinck. Bosnian dialogue.
5. Camera, Luc Drion; editor, Julia Gregory; music, Salif Keita, Manu
Dibango, Guem Percussion. French dialogue.
6. Camera, Nigel Willoughby, Peter Hellmich, Jorge Muller Silva; editor,
Jonathan Morris; music, Vladimir Vega.
7. Editors, Robert Duffy, Kim Bica; music, Gustavo Santaolalla, Osvaldo
Golijov.
8. Camera, Yoav Kosh; editor, Kobi Netanel. Hebrew dialogue.
9. Camera, Declan Quinn; editor, Allyson C. Johnson. English dialogue.
10. Camera, Samuel Bayer; editor, Jay Cassidy; music, Heitor Pereira.
English dialogue.
11. Camera, Masakazu Oka, Toshihiro Seinol; editor, Hajime Okayasu.
Reviewed at the Venice Film Festival (Special Events), Sept. 5, 2002.
(Also in Toronto Film Festival.) Running time: 135 MIN.
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