This White House handout photo shows U.S. President George W. Bush, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card (L) and Admiral Richard Mies as they conduct a video tele-conference at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska, September 11, 2001. One year after the September 11 attacks forced America to confront the reality of foreign terrorism breaching its borders, the U.S. government is examining every piece of its security apparatus in efforts to prevent another attack. Picture taken September 11, 2001. PHOTO – REUTERS

VENICE – The Venice Film Festival courted controversy on Thursday when it screened a film about the September 11 attacks with some stridently anti-American views just a week before the tragedy‘s first anniversary. Audiences saw a preview of the French production „11‘09“01 September 11“ that explores the attacks from 11 different viewpoints, some of which are sure to shake up the festival and provoke heated debate.

Directors from 11 countries — including Britain‘s Ken Loach, America‘s Sean Penn and India‘s Mira Nair — have shot 11-minute segments that convey their thoughts on the suicide hijack attacks which left more than 3,000 people dead in the United States a year ago.

„The size of the drama made me wonder about the way other people and their cultures had received the shock wave and why the television media did not propose a universal vision of the echoes of September 11,“ French producer Alain Brigand, who dreamt up the project, told Reuters in a written interview. „Thus I proposed to 11 renowned directors that they look towards their own cultures, their own memories, their own stories, their own language.“

Hijackers seized four commercial airliners on the day, slammed two into the World Trade Center‘s twin towers in New York and a third plane into the Pentagon near Washington. A fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field. According to U.S. entertainment magazine Variety, some of the contributions are „stridently anti-American“. Brigand says he had encouraged complete freedom of speech knowing that the film would not be immediately screened in the United States „while the American people are still mourning.“

As a result, no U.S. distributor has been signed up for the movie yet, though Brigand said „several“ distributors had expressed an interest further down the road. Egyptian director Youssef Chahine reportedly contributed the most critical segment, which accuses the United States of carrying out atrocities in the name of foreign policy. The U.S.-educated director defends his work in the film‘s promotional material. Loach‘s segment also takes a swipe at U.S. foreign policy by focusing on another anniversary that falls on September 11: General Augusto Pinochet‘s 1973 military coup in Chile, which was backed by the Richard Nixon administration and led to years of repression, torture and institutionalised murder in the South American country. „The U.S. government cannot act in the way it has done for many years without collecting enemies from all parts of the world,“ Loach said about his piece. Bosnia‘s Danis Tanovic, director of „No Man‘s Land“ and the Mexican director of „Amores Perros“, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu also contributed to the film. Penn said his short will try to convey the message that „loss comes every day and pain follows it“.

The film is showing out of competition at Venice. It will open in French theatres on September 11 and can be seen by North American audiences at the Toronto film festival on the same date. Reuters