An Interview with Samira Makhmalbaf about September 11
Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf talked about the impact of the terrorist attack of September 11 and the significance of the film project about it:
"The 9/11 incident is a universal event. Of course, the incident owes its globalization to the image that was sent all over the world and to all nations through the satellite in real time. Yet the reality of the death of 2.5 million Afghanis during a 20-year period because of war and famine was forgotten because the images weren't sent in real time.
"As a person involved in cinema, after seeing this image I again realized the power of imagery and thought to myself that the process of globalization is more reliant on the power of images than anything else. If the news had been announced on the radio without the existence of an image nobody would have believed it.
"This image was only a one-dimensional picture, as if someone is talking about it. It was a monologue and not a dialogue. In order for this pictorial monologue to turn into a media dialogue between humans while the same media is in the hands of the superpowers, it was necessary to invite people from different cultures to view the incident from different angles and perspectives.
"A one-dimensional reality is not comprehensive, and creating such one-way realities only increases human misunderstandings rather than creating human harmony. Reality is not based on the view of the angle of those who see the reality. When we talk about a universal reality we have to see it from the viewpoint of the world. I thought to myself that although this is only a short film and although it practically prevented me from making a feature film, yet participating in a relative pictorial dialogue is a humanitarian act.
"I wanted to express the threats that an eastern girl faces because of an incident that takes place in the West. I wanted to say that an eastern girl might not have seen New York and those towers might not even have a clue about life in that location. Yet she is forced to be anxious about the globalization process and such an incident might even change the course of her life. Actually the story that has been created by the West through globalization might destroy the easterners.
"I wanted to show how the destruction of two towers in a western city could cause the destruction of many cities in non-western countries. I wanted to show how people who have had no role in the destruction of those two towers, who did not even know that they existed, could become homeless and bereft of everything as a result of this."
