11'09"01 SEPTEMBER 11 ---------------------
This outstanding omnibus is a French production featuring a short film from 11 global filmmakers. Their only guidelines were that the film be a reflection on 9/11 and that it be 11 minutes, 9 seconds and 1 frame in length.
Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran, "Blackboards") leads with a a schoolteacher trying to relay the meaning of 9/11 to her Afghani refuge students. Their innocence is charming and Makhmalbaf's final image, of the children gathered for a moment of silence beside a smoking kiln tower, is haunting. A
Claude Lelouch (France, "A Man and a Woman") looks at the event through the crumbling relationship of a deaf woman and her lover in New York City. The unhearing woman goes about her business in a lower Manhattan apartment while her lover returns from the events of the day a shattered, gray ghost. B+
Youssef Chahine (Egypt, "Cairo Station") casts an actor as himself, then has a discussion with the ghost of American soldier killed in the Beirut bombing. Chahine explains why a Middle Eastern Muslim would see a regular American citizen as a valid target - because that citizen lives in a self-elected democracy. Chahine's is one of two entries most likely to be accused of anti-Americanism, but it is a thought-provoking, if unevenly executed, piece. C+
Danis Tanovic (Bosnia-Herzegovina "No Man's Land") parallels the event with the tragedy of Srebrnica in Bosnia and the women who demonstrate on the 11th of each month. Tanovic's piece is simple, but registers emotionally as solidarity in human suffering. B
Idrissa Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso, "Afrique...Mon Afrique") wins for originality for his comedic tale of a group of young boys who try to capture Osama Bin Laden in their homeland for the $25 million reward. His sly underlying social commentary, contrasting the everyday struggles of a poor nation against one spectacular tragedy in the U.S., is a message gently, but firmly, delivered. A
Ken Loach (Great Britain, "My Name Is Joe") has a Chilean write a letter to the people of New York, empathizing with their tragedy by recounting the Tuesday, 9/11 in 1973 when his President Allende was assassinated followed by the murder of 30,000 civilians. Loach uses George Bush's words to indict U.S. involvement in the Chilean coup and its aftermath. A
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Mexico, "Amores Perros") uses a black screen and the sounds of the day in a horrifying montage occasionally jolted by a split second vision of a plane hitting the towers or a body tumbling from them. Inarritu ends his experimental short by questioning man's use of his religion to justify violent acts. A
Amos Gitai (Israel, "Kippour") does a cinema verite piece following a news team at the aftermath of a Jerusalem bombing whose airtime is eclipsed by news from New York. B
Mira Nair (India, "Monsoon Wedding") tells the true story of a missing man suspected of being a terrorist who turns out to have been a hero through the eyes of his mother. This one is emotionally uninvolving despite its subject matter. C
Sean Penn (USA, "The Pledge") tells the tale of a lonely widower (Ernest Borgnine) who realizes the wife he still speaks to every day is dead when the towers' disappearance lets light into his apartment. Borgnine's terrific in this unexpectedly personal entry from Penn. B+
Shohei Imamura (Japan, "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge") delivers a head-scratcher about a Japanese WWII veteran who thinks he's a snake. Imamura's piece is too broad an anti-war statement to have relevance to the events of 9/11. D+
Although 11'09"01 ends on a flat note, the overall project has a strong impact. Although the film was famously accused of anti-Americanism in a Variety article preceding its debut at the 2002 Venice and Toronto film festivals, the producers should be commended for allowing all points of view, including those criticizing American international policy, to present different perspectives to the open minded.
B+
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