Cellule Hambourg

The Hamburg Cell is a docudrama about the cell of Muslim fundamentalists that conducted the 9/11 attack. It starts about 5 years before 9/11 and follows many of the pilots in their efforts to get flight training and covers what was going on in some of their private lives. Not sure how much of it was accurate, seemed pretty realistic to me. Most seemed to just be looking for some fulfillment in their lives, but chose an extreme way to get it. It also shows the missteps, in hindsight, by US law enforcement agencies as these people could have been caught many times during their training. I don't think it really explained the reasons the terrorists chose to conduct their attack, but I guess we will never really know all the facts behind it. Technically a good film with few continuity errors and some good cinematography. The acting seemed a little hollow.

Dramatisation by renowned filmmaker Antonia Bird of the characters and events involved in the 9/11 attacks. The approach is very laid back, is statedly on the basis of three years research and 'known facts and events.' so is something of a chronicle. It avoids demising the hijackers (so such a film could probably never have been made in America) and Bird points out that not only were they real people, intelligent people, who devoutly believed what they were doing was the right thing, but that it is important for us to understand that and the how and the why. We see the main character as a highly intelligent man, seeking to become a better person by becoming a better Muslim, and thence drawn into the training group. Other factors like the American influence in Palestine (central in most Middle-East Muslims' minds) are mentioned briefly, but the story develops in a natural way - a young man joining those prepared to fight for Islam and 'do something worthwhile'. He switches studies to go to flight school and has perfect skills at 'blending' with westerners. The film is unsensational, but without proselytising for either 'side' manages to at least shed some light on the hijackers motives and mentality.

I just saw this movie on cable TV here in Australia and really liked it. It actually gave me goose bumps as it was really eerie. The actors were wonderful and the writing is exemplary as it really gave the story a human face without sympathizing with the act of terrorism. It showed how strange it is in this day and age that grown men can be so brainwashed into thinking that once they commit such a terrible act against humanity that they are going up into Paradise where Virgins are waiting for them. Nowhere in the Koran or the Modern Muslim world would this be accepted. THese terrorists had minds of their own and in no way would be supported by a rational Muslim society. I thought to myself while watching this movie, the Holy Prophet Mohammed would have been disgusted with this act if he were watching from above. The Prophet Mohammed was such a humanitarian that he would not have supported this kind of terrorism in any way.

I hope this movie has shown people the effect of brainwashing and what it can lead to - Just like the David Koresh's of the world or the other Cult leader who had his whole cult commit mass suicide - Brainwashing is the worst thing that can happen to someone. So please let these kinds of movies or acts be a lesson to us all and not let ourselves get caught up in such IGNORANT beliefs and doctrines as to lose our humanity. Peace be upon everyone in the whole world! Now is the time we all need each other - No matter what religion we are!

TAKE CARE EVERYONE!

Understated docu-drama following the men who planned and carried out the attacks of 9/11

"When the world talks about the men who carried out this holy operation they will be talking about the men who changed the course of history," exclaims a senior Al Qaeda member in this fictional docu-drama from director Antonia Bird. Charting the planning and execution of the World Trade Center attacks by a handful of Muslim fundamentalists led by Mohamed Atta (Kamel), The Hamburg Cell is a devastatingly powerful work that puts faces and personalities to the men who carried out the attacks against the US on the fateful morning of September 11th.

Based on a wide range of documentary evidence, from court transcriptions to video footage, this simmering yet understated little movie focuses on Lebanese student Ziad Jarrah (Saleh) as he's transformed from rich-boy student at the University of Applied Science in Hamburg to jihadist hijacker of United Airlines flight 93 (which crashed en route to the White House shortly after simultaneous attacks struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon).

It's a difficult journey. Immersing us in the secretive, clandestine world of these fundamentalists as they indoctrinate new recruits, train at terrorist camps in Afghanistan and learn to fly at an aviation school in Florida, Bird forces a disturbing intimacy with men destined to become mass murderers.

To humanise the terrorists, The Hamburg Cell deliberately focuses on Jarrah, the weakest link of the group, whose reservations about the jihadist cause are eventually swept away. Rather than styling him as some victim of brainwashing, screenwriters Ronan Bennett and Alice Pearman delicately suggest the powerful lure of infatuation with a self-justifying cause while never losing sight of the fact that, for the hijackers, the jihad is not a first strike on America, but a counter strike in an anti-Muslim war that is being waged throughout Bosnia, Chechnya, Indonesia, Iraq and Palestine.

Claustrophobically shot and making good use of CCTV and superimposed titles to give the sense of the covert nature of the cell's activities, Bird's film refuses to release us from our intimate experience of the jihadists' world. It's a strictly non-partisan film that adamantly refuses to moralise. That will undoubtedly cause significant controversy among those who would rather condemn these men as pure evil. Rather, what this intelligent drama asks us to do is recognise their motivation - not to judge them, but to address the injustices (in particular the Palestinian crisis) that drives such heinous and misguided actions.

Verdict Bravely understated, The Hamburg Cell makes a bold attempt to humanise the terrorists behind the events of 9/11. Its studied detachment on such an emotive issue is impressive.

I like the fact that this film is non-Hollywood in it's delivery. It's unglamorous, but still quite sophisticated in capturing the monochromatic lives of the terrorists-to-be. It presents a concise timeline of events in a pointed and deliberate manner. It doesn't pretend to be absolute or correct, and it knows it's an estimation of how things might have went down.

Inevitably, Hollywood will roll out its own 9/11 films and they will be glossy and full of big budget bloat, but this humble effort will remain as testament to the idea that a simple film can be as compelling and inviting to interpretation without the need for dramatic flair and elaborate crane rigs.