The War Within | |
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DVD cover for The War Within |
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Directed by | Joseph Castelo |
Produced by | Tom Glynn Jason Kliot Joana Vicente Mark Cuban |
Written by | Ayad Akhtar Joseph Castelo Tom Glynn |
Starring | Ayad Akhtar Firdous Bamji Nandana Sen Samrat Chakrabarti |
Music by | David Holmes, Stephen Hilton |
Cinematography | Lisa Rinzler |
Editing by | Malcolm Jamieson |
Distributed by | Magnolia Pictures |
Release date(s) | September 30, 2005 |
Running time | 119 minutes |
The War Within is a 2005 American drama film directed by Joseph Castelo. Created by Honet Films and released by Magnolia Pictures, the film stars Ayad Akhtar, Firdous Bamji, Nandana Sen and Sarita Choudhury. The War Within premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.[1]
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The War Within is the story of Hassan, a Pakistani engineering student in Paris who is apprehended by American intelligence services for suspected terrorist activities. After his interrogation, Hassan undergoes a radical transformation and embarks upon a terrorist mission, surreptitiously entering the United States to join a cell based in New York City. After meticulous planning for an event of maximum devastation, all the members of the cell are arrested, except for Hassan, Khalid and their cell leader Izzy. With no alternative and nowhere else to turn, Hassan must rely on the hospitality of his former best friend Sayeed, who is living the American dream with his family in New Jersey. Deciding to go forward and carry out his own attack, Hassan takes advantage of Sayeed's generosity while plotting his strategy and amassing materials to create explosives. Eventually, Hassan's skewed religious fervor clashes with his feelings for Sayeed and his family, especially Sayeed's young son Ali and Sayeed's sister Duri, whom Hassan begins to fall in love with. When Izzy is arrested Khalid and Hassan decide to use the explosives in a suicide attack on Grand Central Station instead. Duri discovers Hassan mixing the explosives in her brother's house and when Sayeed tries to stop him he knocks him out and runs away. Duri follows Hassan in order to stop the attack. At the last minute, Khalid loses his nerve and Hassan goes to the target alone. Duri arrives at Grand Central Station just before Hassan detonates his explosive belt. After the attack, Sayeed is held by the police who believe that he helped Hassan.
Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo and Tom Glynn wrote the film while students at Columbia University's Film School. The trio formed the idea for the film after reading an article about a Palestinian suicide bomber.[3] They approached both Miramax Films and Fine Line Features to finance the film, but both companies refused, citing that the subject matter was too controversial for American audiences.[4]
The film was shot on location in New York City and Jersey City. Sameer Bajar and Afia Nathaniel provided the Urdu dialogues for the film.
When asked why I decided to make this movie, my response is always the same: In a world overwhelmed with fear, in a world wounded by horrific terrorist attacks, I can't imagine making any other film. Our fears are real. But they are compounded by a willful denial – on all sides of the fray – of understanding.I understand the reluctance to extend sympathy to those who wish to do us harm. But I am a firm believer in the necessity and the power of empathy. Whereas a sympathetic portrayal would imply an affinity, either emotional or intellectual, with Hassan, our protagonist, an empathetic depiction implies a more complex and potentially enlightening dynamic: that of coming into an awareness of the experience of another.
By experiencing vicariously the feeling, thoughts, and experiences of Hassan is neither to condone nor to justify this experience or the conclusions he draws.
Our great philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once wrote:
'Great men, great nations, have […] been perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it.'
Without an understanding informed by empathy, we are not manned to face the new world in which we have found ourselves.—Joseph Castelo
The War Within received mainly positive reviews from critics. It has an aggregate rating of 72% on Rotten Tomatoes[5] and 61 out of 100 on Metacritic.[6]
The DVD for The War Within was released on January 17, 2006. It features commentary by Joseph Castelo and Ayad Akhtar, 8 deleted scenes and an alternate beginning.