The Hamburg Cell (2004)

A fictionalized account of the September 11 hijackers.

Director:

Antonia Bird

Writers:

Ronan Bennett, Alice Perman

Stars:

Karim Saleh, Maral Kamel, Agni Scott

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Karim Saleh	...	Ziad Jarrah
Maral Kamel	...	Mohammed Atta (as Kamel)
Agni Scott	...	Aysel (as Agni Tsangaridou)
Omar Berdouni	...	Ramzi bin al Shibh
Adnan Maral	...	Marwan Shehhi
Kamel Boutros	...	Mohammed Atta (as Kamel)
Tamer Doghem	...	Zacarias Moussaoui
Khalid Laith	...	Abdul Aziz AlOmari
Nasser Memarzia	...	Assem
Omar El-Saeidi	...	Said al Ghamdi
Bassem Breish	...	Yasser
Mark Clifton	...	Flight Simulation Instructor
Navid Navid	...	Salim (as Navíd Akhavan)
Joel Kirby	...	FBI Agent
Clayton Nemrow	...	Pan Am Instructor

Storyline

Ziad Jarrah, a young Lebonese man from a good family goes to Germany to attend college and starts dating a Turkish girl named Aysel. Although not very religious and accustomed to Western ways, Ziad becomes "brothers" with some fundamentalist Muslims and is slowly drawn into becoming "a Good Muslim". Mohamed Atta and others instill Ziad with a hatred of Jews and "Infidels", which leads to a desire for Jihad and martyrdom. He moves to Hamburg to study aeronautical engineering, attends an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, and deceives his girlfriend and family about his involvement. He eventually attends flight school in Florida with Atta and others, waiting for and preparing for "the big wedding" (the 9/11 attack). Meanwhile, US government and law enforcement officials fail to act despite believing that a major terrorist attack is imminent, and despite noticing a number of suspicious persons involved in flight training.

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Plot Keywords:

muslim | terrorist | martyrdom | flight school | hijacker | 

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English Arabic German

Release Date:

10 January 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

A hamburgi sejt

Filming Locations:

Central Station, St. Georg, Hamburg, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mentorn Television, Inner Circle Pictures GmbH, Wildgaze Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

During the earlier flight training in the Cessna they showed the terrorist in the right seat. During flight instruction, the flight instructor always sits on the right and the student on the left (pilot's seat).

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Quotes

Ziad Jarrah: [On a cell phone] I'm at the departure lounge.
Marwan Shehhi: Me too.
Ziad Jarrah: Our time has come at last...

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Soundtracks

Forsaken
Performed by Bill Anschell Jazz Unit
Written by Bill Anschell

User Reviews

still left questions

The Hamburg Cell is a docudrama about the cell of Muslim fundamentalists that conducted the 9/11 attack. It starts about 5 years before 9/11 and follows many of the pilots in their efforts to get flight training and covers what was going on in some of their private lives. Not sure how much of it was accurate, seemed pretty realistic to me. Most seemed to just be looking for some fulfillment in their lives, but chose an extreme way to get it. It also shows the missteps, in hindsight, by US law enforcement agencies as these people could have been caught many times during their training. I don't think it really explained the reasons the terrorists chose to conduct their attack, but I guess we will never really know all the facts behind it. Technically a good film with few continuity errors and some good cinematography. The acting seemed a little hollow.