The Students of terror; The terrible consequences of the 9/11 attacks

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Aug 22, 2004 | by Torcuil Crichton

"If the evidence wasn't there for it, we didn't write it," says Bennett. "We don't know word for word what was said, but some of it we know from evidence in the first trial of Motassadeq."

What's remarkable about this highly political and inevitably controversial subject is the cool, dispassionate way in which the film handles the material. Director Antonia Bird is noted for presenting raw emotion on screen in films like Priest and Face. This time the emotion is spare, the style a restrained, semi-documentary approach that only emphasises the humanity of the protagonists.

Of course there's passion in the plot. The political and religious fervour of the radicalised Muslims in Hamburg and the turbulent love affair between Jarrah and his secular Turkish girlfriend Aysis help drive the story forward.

Having to stick strictly to what was known and verifiable was also a major challenge in keeping the dramatic flow of the story going. "Frustratingly, I would come to a point in the script where I would say that what needs to happen now is a meeting between these two characters," says Bennett. "Trouble is Alice would be sitting beside me and saying that one of them was in Egypt and the other is in Berlin and there's no evidence of them meeting."

Similarly, other stories about the hijackers, about the drinking and womanising in the final days before the attack have been left out. "There are a couple of stories that Shehi, Atta and one other were in a bar in Florida and there was a row over the girls. A barmaid came forward a few days afterwards and claimed she'd seen them. We asked ourselves how likely it was that they would be recognised and we decided against it."

Jarrah is seen drinking beer, to Atta's disapproval, but these are verifiable incidents. "I think the film gives a realistic evaluation of who they were," says Bennett.

This even-handed, almost dispassionate treatment of the terrorists might give the film documentary authenticity, but it may all have been a mask. Jarrah's pretence to his girlfriend that they would be married and have children in particular symbolises the deceit that the bombers were involved in.

Bennett thinks it is more complex than that. "Some of these guys volunteered for martyrdom in 1999. The way I look at is that they had two years to live with the fact that one day they were going to kill themselves. Leaving aside the morality of it, the psychological forces operating on an individual must have made it a hell of a burden to bear.

"I doubt they could have survived that without doubt, torment and failure of nerve. We know from the 9/11 Commission report that there were doubts about Jarrah. He went back to Germany, the other conspirators tried to keep his relationship with Aysel on track. Was he imagining this other life with her so that he could armour himself against reality?"

Two nights before the flights Jarrah was stopped by police for speeding and issued with a citation for a court appearance, which begs the question that consciously, or otherwise he wanted to get caught. The truth is that we don't know.