Confusing responses to 9/11
11'09'01: failing to confront the knee-jerk reactions of the time
DVD/Video: 11'09'01 - Artificial Eye, 12, £19.99/£15.99
This compilation of short films responding to 9/11 veers from the mediocre and bad to just plain baffling.
There are plenty of the big names of world cinema here, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (tasteless), Claude Lelouch (solipsistic), Samira Makhmalbaf (indecipherable), but little to prove their credentials.
Rushed into production, and with the over-tricksy gimmick of each film lasting 11 minutes, nine seconds and one frame, it fails to confront the wider knee-jerk reactions of the time.
Only Danis Tanovic, with his moving return to Srebrenica, and Ken Loach's intelligent and unexpected commemoration of Chile, really hit the mark.
