11'09''01 September 11 (2002)

Very well executed

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

French production in which leading film directors from 11 countries were invited to create 11-minute short films conveying their reflections on the events of September 11.The film segments vary widely in content and quality. Two allude to U.S. complicity in terrorist acts (in Chile against Allende, who died on September 11, 1973, depicted in the segment by British director Ken Loach; and in Palestine by U.S.-backed Israelis, shown in the segment from Egyptian director Youssef Chahine). Two more recall other destructive acts (a Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, shot by Israeli director Amos Gitan; the Japanese "holy war" against the west in WW II, by Shohei Imamura).Ironies abound in several stories. Shadows that darken the New York City apartment of a grieving old man suddenly disappear as the World Trade towers telescope to the ground in Sean Penn's piece, bringing the man momentary joy. But in this bright light he can finally see that his wife is really gone. In Mira Nair's film, based on a real incident, a missing young man, also in New York City, the son of a Pakistani family, is first presumed to be a fugitive terrorist, but later he proves to a hero who sacrificed himself trying to save others in the towers.There are poignant moments dotted throughout. Loach has his exiled Chilean man quote St. Augustine, to the effect that hope is built of anger and courage: anger at the way things are, courage to change them. Imamura tells us that there is no such thing as a holy war. Samira Makhmalbaf shows a teacher with her very young Afghan schoolchildren, exiled in Iran, trying to tell them about the events that have just transpired in New York. But they are understandably more impressed with a major event in their refugee camp, where two men have fallen into a deep well, one killed, the other sustaining a broken leg. This is comprehensible tragedy on a grand scale for the 6 year olds. Idrissa Ouedraogo, from Burkina Faso, creates a drama in which the son of an ailing woman spots Osama bin Laden in their village and gathers his buddies to help capture the fugitive terrorist, in order to get the $25 million U. S. reward. He tells his friends not to let any of the adults know their plans, for the older folks would merely waste the money on cars and cigarettes, while he plans to help his mother and others who are sick and destitute.It is Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (maker of "Amores Perros") who provides by far the most powerful and chilling segment, one that, for the most part, shows only a darkened screen with audio tape loops of chanting and voices and occasional thudding sounds. Brief visual flashes gradually permit us to see bodies falling from the high floors of the towers, and it dawns on us that the thuds are these bodies hitting the ground. The sequence ends with elegiac orchestral music and a still shot, bearing a phrase first shown only in Arabic, then with a translation added: "Does God's light guide us or blind us?" (In various languages with English subtitles) Grade: 8/10 (B+). (Seen on 10/31/04). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.

First than anything, I'm not going to praise Iñarritu's short film, even I'm Mexican and proud of his success in mainstream Hollywood.In another hand, I see most of the reviews focuses on their favorite (and not so) short films; but we are forgetting that there is a subtle bottom line that circles the whole compilation, and maybe it will not be so pleasant for American people. (Even if that was not the main purpose of the producers) What i'm talking about is that most of the short films does not show the suffering that WASP people went through because the terrorist attack on September 11th, but the suffering of the Other people.Do you need proofs about what i'm saying? Look, in the Bosnia short film, the message is: "You cry because of the people who died in the Towers, but we (The Others = East Europeans) are crying long ago for the crimes committed against our women and nobody pay attention to us like the whole world has done to you".Even though the Burkina Fasso story is more in comedy, there is a the same thought: "You are angry because Osama Bin Laden punched you in an evil way, but we (The Others = Africans) should be more angry, because our people is dying of hunger, poverty and AIDS long time ago, and nobody pay attention to us like the whole world has done to you".Look now at the Sean Penn short: The fall of the Twin Towers makes happy to a lonely (and alienated) man. So the message is that the Power and the Greed (symbolized by the Towers) must fall for letting the people see the sun rise and the flowers blossom? It is remarkable that this terrible bottom line has been proposed by an American. There is so much irony in this short film that it is close to be subversive.Well, the Ken Loach (very know because his anti-capitalism ideology) is much more clearly and shameless in going straight to the point: "You are angry because your country has been attacked by evil forces, but we (The Others = Latin Americans) suffered at a similar date something worst, and nobody remembers our grief as the whole world has done to you".It is like if the creative of this project wanted to say to Americans: "You see now, America? You are not the only that have become victim of the world violence, you are not alone in your pain and by the way, we (the Others = the Non Americans) have been suffering a lot more than you from long time ago; so, we are in solidarity with you in your pain... and by the way, we are sorry because you have had some taste of your own medicine" Only the Mexican and the French short films showed some compassion and sympathy for American people; the others are like a slap on the face for the American State, that is not equal to American People.

Though the pieces are uneven this collection of 11 short films is truly a moving and human experience. There were some who, in the wake of the emotion on the anniversary of the bombings, took this to be anti-American. I don't think thats the case, even though some parts might be taken that way if you don't look behind the obvious. Ultimately the film is nothing except an attempt by people to express their confusion, sympathy and feelings about what happened. These are stories of people who's worlds have been shaken up by what happened on a Tuesday in September.As I said this film will move you, probably to tears. Its not always easy to watch, for example the film from Mexico is little more than a black screen with sound, but its effect is such as to lay even the strongest of people low. If you can be strong you really should see this film. It will comfort you and enlighten you and affect you...

Definitely a spoiler or two, or three.....As a collection of films about how the world reacted to the September 11th terrorist attacks, this film is as mixed a bag as can be, and shows both the widely ranging views but also the aspirations of their directors.The two pieces that I thought really addressed the issues about 9/11 were the Afghanistan and Egyptian ones. The Afghan piece, showing the children not having a clue about 9/11, and dismissing much of it as god's will, was somewhat unnerving. The children's easy assumptions all too easily can also be seen as the hardened voices and ideology of adults.The Egyptian piece was the one that focused the most on the underlying conflicts behind 9/11, and the director was obviously involved in a lot of soul searching and questioning, seeing things in the larger context of world affairs and who's really right or wrong. I commend him on his honesty, even if his words are addressed across an impassable chasm. Suicide bombers are equated as freedom fighters, and very few people outside the Muslim world will accept that point of view. The Indian piece focused on 9/11 the event, (The Egyptian one did start off there) and presents the juxtaposition of a Muslim aid worker who went to help at the twin towers and dies, and is mistakenly believed later to have been a terrorist. It addresses well the conflicted emotions right after the event, but it is set in New York, and doesn't look at what India's views on 9/11 were at all.Others vary from good to simply awful. The one everyone talks about, the Mexican section by Inarritu, was an interesting film technique but didn't add much else narrative or discussion wise. The French and Burkina-Faso sections looked like the director's effort to show their skills and make a movie only incidentally about 9/11. The Burkina-Faso is really more a moral fable but adds some humor and levity in the midst of the more serious clips.Sean Penn's section was on the surface a good character study, and Ernest Borgnine turns in a fine performance as an elderly man living a life of routine with little to look forward to. However, the heavy handed symbolism is too much, Penn might as well cut to a shot of himself with a flashlight in the camera shouting, "Open your eyes! Can't you see?"The Israeli movie was a flop, it wasn't done very well and the director tries to keep up the hectic pace of a post-bombing chaos for the whole 11 minutes. The result is a camera panning back and forth across some obviously staged wreckage and the same four or five people running back and forth into camera view. It had a notable statement, but a poor execution.The British clip was the one that made the most people upset and caused some people at the showing I attended to walk out. I had to go home to look up who Allende was, and I wonder how long the good times in Chile under him would have lasted. There's no doubt Pinochet was a bad guy and the CIA was involved in putting him in power--but completely missing from the furious British director's movie and his UK located Chilean expatriate's narrative is how Pinochet went to Britain for medical treatment in 1997-1999 and several countries tried to extradite him for his crimes, which Britain refused to do. A movie so heavily casting the blame should look at the whole thing, not what fits the view best.The Japanese movie was the most different and confusing, and relates to 9/11 at best allegorically. Like the French and Burkina-faso pieces it too seems a flex at movie making over issues.Overall this movie will likely leave you feeling as conflicted as it's various shorts, and thinking about things for a long time after.