Released in theaters on September 11, 2002, this film was created specifically to commemorate the tragic day one year earlier, September 11, 2001. It is a collection of eleven short films, each lasting 11 minutes, 9 seconds, and one frame, with every director given full creative freedom.
Claude Lelouch chose to work within his signature theme: a love story, set entirely inside a New York apartment. A couple on the verge of breaking up has a heated conversation—perhaps their last—on that unforgettable September morning. The argument is raw and painful, but silent: the woman is deaf. She had come to New York as a tourist and fell in love with her tour guide—an intense and unexpected romance now clouded by doubts as time has passed.
The images of the planes striking the Twin Towers are burned into our collective memory; much of our auditory memory is tied to the stunned voices of journalists narrating the events in nonstop live coverage. The protagonist has the TV on, but it’s outside her field of vision. While we, the viewers, witness history unfolding live, she remains unaware—unable to hear anything. Even when she feels the table tremble, she doesn’t suspect the cause. She’s lost in memories of how her love story began, and she’s writing a letter to explain why she believes it’s now ending.
Twenty years ago, it was still plausible that news wouldn’t instantly reach those not glued to a screen. She suffers as though her world were ending, not realizing that the actual end of the world is unfolding just a few miles away.
In the final moments, personal and collective tragedy touch—like a kind of miracle unfolding on that very morning, told through the unique perspective of someone initially excluded from it both physically and emotionally.
An Anthology to Remember
Claude Lelouch’s episode is just one of the eleven that make up the film 11′09″01 – September 11, released in 2002. The original title, more symbolic than its Italian counterpart, refers to the exact duration of each segment: 11 minutes, 9 seconds, and 1 frame. The idea came from French producer Alain Brigand, who sought to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks through an internationally sensitive artistic project. Brigand, along with producers from participating countries, selected a diverse group of filmmakers. Each director worked independently, resulting in vastly different stories in both tone and message.
From Muslim discrimination (explored by Mira Nair in India), to criticism of so-called holy wars (Shohei Imamura in Japan, Alejandro González Iñárritu in Mexico), to political interests (Youssef Chahine in Egypt, Ken Loach in the UK), and to expressions of pure human drama (such as Lelouch in France, but also Sean Penn in the USA, Samira Makhmalbaf in Iran, Danis Tanović in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Amos Gitai in Israel).
– Matteo Cinti
