Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I think I'm probably echoing many other reviews here, but I will agree that although parts of this film are better than others, it is worth watching as a whole.I watched this with my film class, and collectively OUR high points were the Mexican segment and the French segment. The auditorium was completely silent during these two, which is a lot to say for a room of 200 eighteen-year-olds. Personally, I also very much appreciated these segments; I felt they were extremely powerful and frightening.Collectively, our low point was the Japanese segment. For some reason everyone thought it was hilarious (?). I didn't - although I didn't really understand its presence here, I thought it was interesting and quite artistically done.For someone who has at best a mild interest in politics, etc. overall I enjoyed this film much more than I thought I would. Overall, very well done with a good balance of political, dramatic, and artistic elements.

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.

This collection of eleven short stories in one movie is a great idea, and presents some great segments, but also some disappointing surprises. Based on the tragic event of the September 11th 2001 in the United States of America, eleven directors were invited to give their approach to the American tragedy. The result of most of them is not only an individual sympathy to the American people, but mainly to the intolerance in the world with different cultures and people.Ken Loach (UK) presents the best segment, about the September 11th 1973 in Chile, when the democratic government of Salvador Alliende was destroyed by the dictator Augusto Pinochet with the support of the USA.The other excellent segments are the one of Youssef Chahine (Egypt), showing the intolerance in the world, and the number of victims made by USA governments in different countries along the contemporary history; and the one of Mira Nair (India), showing a true story of injustice and prejudice against a Pakistanis family, whose son was wrongly accused of terrorism in USA, when he was indeed a hero.Some segments are beautiful: Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran) shows the innocent Afghans refugee children preparing an inoffensive shelter against bombs, while their teacher tries to explain to them what happened on the other side of the world; the romantic Claude Lelouch (France) shows the life of a couple in New York nearby the WTC; Danis Tanovic (Bosnia-Herzegovina) shows the effects of their war in a small location and the lonely protest of widows; Sean Penn is very poetic, showing that life goes on; and Shohei Imamura's story is probably the most impressive, showing that there is no Holy War but sadness and disgrace.The segment of Idrissa Quedraogo (Birkina Faso) is very naive, but pictures the terrible poor conditions of this African nation.The segment of Amos Gital (Israel) is very boring and manipulative, showing more violence and terrorism.The segment of Alejandro González Iñárritu is very disappointing, horrible, without any inspiration and certainly the worst one.My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "11 de Setembro" ("September 11")

9-11 is an innovative film in many ways. But in other ways, it finds itself mired in the personalities of its 11 directors, specifically those anti-American and those who are indifferent. As you can see, there seems to be no pro-American filmmaker in the whole group. A strange lot, if indeed the producers chose 11 filmmakers out of random. (Which is highly doubtful.)The running theme, despite the various styles and stories, is one of moral equivalency. As if to say, "Since America did these evil things in the past, thus the slaughter of 3,000 of their own is justified." It is most telling that not a single story, out of the 11, makes the "bold" statement that slaughtering 3,000 people who has nothing to do with the U.S. Government, who died because they only sought to earn money in order to raise their family, is wrong.Instead, many of the filmmakers go out of their way to prove moral equivalency between these despicable terrorist attacks and the U.S. Government. As the saying goes, "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stone."Or perhaps the theme the filmmakers should be going for is "Two wrongs doesn't make a right." Apparently according to these filmmakers, two wrongs DOES, in fact, make a right. If this is true, then those in England, Germany, and Japan, with their history of genocide, war crimes, and human rights abuses, really shouldn't make a peep when some sap runs into their shopping mall with bombs. After all, have their Governments not, in the past, committed some acts that can be the basis for moral equivalency?5 out of 10