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If, like me, you've been waiting for the first serious narrative film portrayal of contemporary Islamic terrorism, here it is. I had searched in vain for such a feature shortly before release of "War Within." The closest thing I found was "The Terrorist," a well crafted 1999 film set in Sri Lanka, about a young Tamil woman who is trained to become a suicide bomber.But the insurrection of the Tamil rebels against the government has always been about political control, not conflicting world views or religion as such. The terrorist is not motivated by the promise of reward in the afterlife for her deed, but by the vision of a better sociopolitical future for her people. There's nothing in that movie that bears on extremist Muslim jihad.Now we've got such a film, and it's pretty good. Co-written by three buddies, alums of the Columbia University Graduate Film Program, it is directed by one of them (Joseph Castelo) and stars another (Ayad Akhtar, born and raised in Milwaukee) as Hassan, a peaceable Pakistani engineer turned suicide bomber.The screenplay is vague on contextual details. Hassan has been living and studying in Paris for some time. As the film opens he's out strolling, gabbing on his cell phone about what film he wants to see that evening, when he is forcibly seized, thrust into a car and injected in the neck with a drug, an explosive sequence that definitely hooks you.Remanded to a prison in Pakistan, he is held there for more than two years and regularly tortured by authorities that assume he is mixed up with a domestic terrorist organization, a group Hassan's brother had apparently been affiliated with, a brother who, unbeknownst to Hassan, had been killed earlier because of this presumed connection. From here on the plot unfolds more clearly.Hassan, previously apolitical, is radicalized by this experience and, upon release from prison, he affiliates with an extremist group that eventually smuggles him into New York City, where he joins others who will use his engineering skills to make bombs for imminently planned suicide missions at major public sites like Grand Central Station.When the FBI busts up the cell, Hassan must find cover and moves into the home of an old school chum, Sayeed (Firdous Bamji), a physician who has immigrated with his family to New Jersey. Sayeed is comfortably settled, a middle-of-the-road Muslim, definitely pro-American. Hassan does not discuss his imprisonment or his mission with Sayeed, though wide differences in the two men's religio-political views gradually become clear.Hassan, his resolve fueled by horrid nocturnal flashbacks from his captivity, now secretly assembles bomb packs in Sayeed's basement for himself and another cell member who has stayed at large. Finally discovered, he bolts, bombs and all, heading for Grand Central Station. Sayeed calls the police, who of course take Sayeed himself into custody. Duri, Sayeed's sister, who has a major crush on Hassan, also tries to stop him, but to no avail. The fact that Hassan successfully detonates his payload in the middle of Manhattan is chilling, to say the least.The main characters (Hassan and Sayeed) are written thoughtfully and are well acted: they aren't just devices to expound differing perspectives. Hassan is reserved, self contained, understandably guarded. He is tender toward Sayeed's young son, Ali, but does not spare him lessons about the threats to Muslims throughout the world that Hassan perceives, lessons imparted in whispers at night in the bedroom they share. At times we see anger and tension burning in Hassan's eyes, but more often he appears to be serenely sure of himself, and this too is chilling.Sayeed, in contrast, has been thoroughly Westernized. He's warm, gregarious, trusting. And when, near the end, he picks up the phone to dial the police, to report Hassan's terrorist intentions, secure in the belief that here in the U.S. his trust will be requited, you want to shout out to him, No! Don't do it! They will take you! See you as complicit in the bombing plot! You and your family may be ruined! It is a deeply ironic moment, presented, as is everything in the film, without pompous sermonizing.This movie demonizes the Pakistanis who kidnap and torture Hassan. Perhaps this is justified, but it is regrettable that the film stoops to the same tactic of anonymous stereotyping that has characterized portrayals of terrorists themselves in nearly all the unsatisfactory Hollywood movies on this theme (mostly third rate action flicks in which a Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone or Ahnold the Governator kills off the faceless terrorist horde).The story in "War Within" hangs together plausibly until near the end, when events become kaleidoscopically frantic, too much so to be entirely believable. The other significant flaw in this film is that, apart from its two central characters, the other roles are merely one dimensional props.A major strength of "War Within" is its intelligently entwined story of conflict on three levels, sounded in the triple entendre of its title. Surely there is a war afoot within the world, between the jihadists and others, especially the U.S., Western Europe and Australia. And there is a struggle within the Islamist world itself, between religious moderates and militant fundamentalists, personified here by Sayeed and Hassan.There are also hints of a struggle going on within Hassan himself, a pull between his former comfortable, peaceful way of life, a life Sayeed and Duri would be only too glad to help him restart in America, and the terrorist cause to which he has more recently dedicated himself.This film no doubt foreshadows others on terrorism yet to come that may be better, but "War Within" is a noteworthy beginning. (In Urdu & English) My rating: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 10/23/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.
