September 11

Eleven international directors react to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in this compilation of 11 shorts that each run exactly 11 minutes, 9 seconds, and one frame long (11/9 being the tragic date in the inverted European system). Struggling to understand the attacks themselves and an America with ideals that it sometimes fails to live up, the films are by turns personal and political, abstract and straightforward, bittersweet and mournful, angry and searching. Weighing in are such notables as Mira Nair (India), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Mexico), Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran), Ken Loach (England), Danis Tanovic (Bosnia), and others, in films that shame the U.S. government for its imperialistic policies and the American people for their bigotries, ponder the nightmarish violence that human beings can inflict upon one another, and wonder at the profound depths of sorrow people can share with those on the other side of the planet. All are hard to watch--particularly the American entry, from Sean Penn, which seems to suggest that even this darkest of clouds has a silver lining--but, in the end, they do inspire the hope that by confronting horror we can perhaps prevent its recurrence. Recommended. (M. Johanson)