11'09''01 - September 11 (2002)
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 58
Fresh: 45 | Rotten: 13
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 551
Movie Info
In the aftermath of the tragedies on September 11, 2001, the French film company Studio Canal called upon a group of filmmakers, representing various regions of the world, to address the scope of the situation in however broad or intimate a context as they saw fit. The one guideline they were given was that no one film could exceed 11 minutes, nine seconds, and one frame. The resulting omnibus film, 11'09"01, showed at festivals around the world the following year and garnered a theatrical
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All Critics (65) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (13) | DVD (4)
An ungainly, intermittently harrowing omnibus filled with moments of piercing sorrow and rage.
You'll get a provocative picture of how a variety of filmmakers reacted to the events of Sept. 11.
An uneven but telling document.
The results are not monumental, but they are a variety of sober responses to the tragedy that help place the event in a global context.
You have to take the duds with the skyrockets, but overall, this odd compendium is an emotionally moving experience.
There are some very fine directors represented here ... but none has fully risen to the full measure of their talent.
The most forceful contribution is by Ken Loach.
Seeing September 11 now, five years after its completion, is a reminder not only of the visceral terror from that day, but also of the sense of shared global humanity that flourished briefly in its wake.
Ken Loach's entry aside, this is a self-indulgent bid to wring arthouse kudos from tragedy.
Eminently worth seeing, arguing with, and thinking about.
the best segments are from the most obscure directors... the big guns mostly strike out
Some were reported to have expressed very un-American sentiments, but that wasn't the case at all.
'A pesar de lo fallido de algunos trabajos, es un sólido trabajo que muestra las diferentes reacciones de grupos étnicos e intelectuales a una grave tragedia'
The short films range in quality and style from wonderful absurdist metaphor ... to breathtakingly dumb metaphor ... to hilarious satire to theatre of the obscure.
Everyone can find something they like on the buffet.
The best witness of 9/11 is 9/11, and Inarritu, as if honorably terrorized by the facts, turns to an Arabic quotation: 'Does God's light guide us or blind us?'
It was wise to wait two years to release this collection of 11 shorts, each 11 minutes, nine seconds and one frame in length; even now, it's hard to imagine the viewer whose gut will remain unwrenched.
11'09"01 - September 11 is a work that has resonance even two years after that [terrible] day.
As a whole, September 11 never reaches any conclusions or ready insights. But as a collection of moments, the film often soars.
For audiences with an open mind -- and more than just a little tolerance for different opinions -- there are at least a few moments here worth watching.
The collection's overarching message is that, yes, it's still too soon for art to carry the weight of that day's events.
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Top Critic
Samira Makhmazbaf - Samira Makhmalbaf highlights the innocents of the children who are most likely to be effected by the results of 9/11 as the village concentrate on building bomb shelters made of bricks, a teacher struggles to educate her class. Poignant, especially as we now know the fate of those children.
Claude Lelouch - Lelouch uses deafness as a metaphor to show the vulnerability of many that day and also of the unheard voices of that day. He also shows the unexpectedness of the events and the regret we have.
Youssef Chahine - A misguided and confusing short, if I was in charge it wouldn't have made the cut. I couldn't tell you what the underline meaning was but then I bet Chahine wouldn't be able to give a coherent answer either. A weak submission.
Danis Tanovic - Tanovic's short shows a group of women, who although shocked and disgusted like the rest of the world, decide to continue with there ongoing protest to the death of their loved ones in war torn Bosnia.
Idrissa Ouedraogo - This is a more light-hearted short, with a group of kids who think they have found Bin-Laden and try to capture him for reward money. This could be seen as an attack on those who capitalised on the events of 9/11 but in this case, the boys want to spend the money on good, to pay for the medical treatment for one of the boy's mother.
Ken Loach - Loach takes a different approach to the other directors by taking a real person,
Vladimir Vega, a Chilean whom took part in protests during the fateful murder of Allende in the 70's, who compares the similarities between the two events and empathises with the people involved through writing a letter to them.
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Alejandro González Iñárritu's short film is mainly just audio recorded in New York on 9/11. Here and there we see flash imagery of the towers burning and the people falling. This adds nothing to the collection, is completely uncreative and is completely pointless not to mention distasteful. The weakest submission by far. Moore did it much better in Fahrenheit 9/11 and in a much more dignified fashion.
Amos Gitai - Gitai takes us back to 9/11 but to Israel, where on that morning a car bomb exploded killing several people. It was a suicide bomber. The film doesn't take anything away from New York's pain, it just reminds that this is a daily occurrence in some places around the world, also begs the question, where is the rest of the world on this war on terror?
Mira Nair - This is probably the most touching and important short of the collection. Nair tells the true story of a Muslim family living in America whose son is killed in the attack. At first the young man is branded as one of the terrorists and the family is scrutinised and mistrusted. In the end, it is realised that the man had actually gone there to help but was killed in the process, highlighting peoples ignorance, misconceptions and the fact that the government has done very little to ease race hatred.
Sean Penn - I seem to be one of the few that like Penn's short. It is a fairly irrelevant story but a touching one all the same. I'm a big Ernest Borgnine fan and he's brilliant in this as a sad old man, not quite getting to grips with the loss of his wife and living in the shadow of the towers. When they fall, he has a moment of joy as his apartment is filled with light for the first time in years but then it only seems to highlight that his wife isn't there. I personally think Penn took his brief and really ran with it, maybe so than most of the other directors.
Shohei Imamura - Certainly the strangest of the collection. This was to be his last film, and declaring that 'There is no such thing as a Holy War' through the spoken work of a snake is a hell of a way to go out.