30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Global Interpretation of 9/11 that Will Make You Think, February 14, 2005
French producer Alain Brigand gathered a collection of eleven film directors from around the world and gave them an assignment: to make a film of eleven minutes and nine seconds duration that symbolized their perception of the events on September 11, 2001. The results in this DVD, while occasionally uneven, are a brilliant response - thought-provoking, shocking, touching, cautionary, and confused. More important, ten of these eleven vignettes (excluding that of Sean Penn) allow us to view 9/11 through a non-American lens, an opportunity we seldom have to see ourselves as others see us.
The best of these eleven shorts are magnificent and heart-rending. Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran) tells the story of a woman teacher at an Afghani refugee camp in Iran. First she wanders through the camp, retrieving the young children for school who are busy making mud for bricks to protect themselves from an American atomic bomb. She herds them into a makeshift classroom and asks them if they know about a terrible event that has occurred in the world. Two people fell into a nearby well, and one was killed, the children tell her. Following a marvelous parody of a philosophical discussion about God's plan, the children are coaxed into a moment of silence standing next to their own tower, the smokestack for their brick kiln.
Claude Lelouch (France) directs an intimate story of a deaf woman in New York who is busy writing a break-up letter to her boyfriend that terrible morning. She misses the entire event on television only to find her boyfriend standing at the door, covered in dust and crying. Idrissa Ouedragogo (Burkina Faso) tells the charming story of five boys who spot Osama bin Laden in their remote village and set out to capture him for the $25 million reward. Tragedy for some creates opportunity for others. Mira Nair (India) presents a Middle Eastern mother in a Queens neighborhood who is victimized by anger, discrimination, and sacrifice, ultimately having to deliver a devastating eulogy.
Two of the shorts take controversial but wildly different approaches. Ken Loach (UK) relates 9/11 to another 9/11 in 1973 when the U.S. backed the overthrow of the democratically-elected Allende in favor of Pinochet. The result was a horrific, U.S.-inspired reign of terror that took more than 30,000 Chilean lives. The narrator writes that Chileans will remember the WTC victims on the first anniversary of their tragic deaths; he hopes Americans might remember the 29th anniversary of so many Chilean deaths. By contrast, the Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu uses a mostly blank screen, broken by flashes of human bodies falling from the burning towers, to transmit a simple question: does God's light guide us or blind us?
Each of the eleven pieces in September 11 are unique in story line and cinematic approach. A few, such as Shohei Imamura's (Japan) and Youssef Chahine (Egypt) fall flat, but they are far outweighed by the others. Some pieces may touch you, and some may anger you, but all will make you stop and think. The events of 9/11 were not just an American event, they were a world event. While we have every right to our own national perspective, we gain from opening our mind and hearts to the rest of the world, sharing our anger as well as our grief.
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35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a global perspective, November 1, 2004
An excellent sampling of different views and reactions to the events on September 11, 2001. Not all views are sympathetic towards the US, and some strong political commentary is expressed. People who are interested in different points of views and interpretations on that day's event will enjoy the styles and ideas reflected. People who take offense to any kind of anti-US opinion and feel that any artistic representation of the event is in bad taste should stay away.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Complex Interpretations of a Painful, Terrible Event, November 13, 2004
This is an extraordinary compilation of 11 short films by directors from as far as Japan and as close as the U.S. All the films are aware of the still unbearable horror of the events of 9/11, but each interprets them differently. Some are direct, dramatic vignettes. Others, like Shohei Imamura's, are almost impenetrable allegories. Sean Penn's tale, featuring Ernest Borgnine, is as moving as it is mysterious. The British director, Ken Loach, provides a political parallel that will enrage some and amaze others. This is a film that will stay with you and offer perspectives you might not have thought of.
Robert Kolker, author, "A Cinema of Loneliness," "The Altering Eye," "Film, Form, and Culture."
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