DUBAI, 11 December 2004 — When “The Hamburg Cell” was first screened in the Arab world this week, Egyptian-born actor Kamel feared audience reaction could descend into violence.
The acclaimed film, which reconstructs the Al-Qaeda plot behind the Sept. 11 attacks, drew a strong response in Dubai on Thursday, but Kamel survived unscathed to tell the tale of what it was like to play Egyptian hijacker Mohammed Atta.
“I was really nervous tonight. I thought maybe somebody could throw something. When I was coming up the stairs, I thought this could be the moment,” said the 35-year-old after the screening at the Dubai International Film Festival. “I’m quite overwhelmed because this is my first time to see the film and it’s the first time it’s shown in an Arab country,” said the actor.
“There is absolute evil in what they did and I did it knowing there’s no way to take it any other way. But the film is asking you to know that this is where they came from.”
Kamel and Lebanese actor Karim Saleh, who plays the Lebanese hijacker Ziad Jarrah, give powerful performances that focus on the psychology of the 19 attackers, 15 of whom were Saudis.
The script of Irishman Ronan Bennet suggests that Atta turned to fanaticism in part because of a cold, strict father. The more sociable Jarrah is brainwashed by radicals.
But a number of Arabs in the audience in Dubai said the film, mainly financed by Britain’s Channel 4, neglected the political backdrop of widespread enmity toward American foreign policy.
Anti-US sentiment has been strong among Arabs and Muslims because of perceived US bias toward Israel in its conflict with Palestinians. “You are excellent actors, but everybody knows the political motivations,” one man said to shouts of approval.
“The film takes the easy route and shows negative stereotypes of Muslims as extreme, fervent, terrorists. There’s not one positive image here,” another said. Saleh responded, to applause: “But that’s what they were”.
In Europe some critics have said the carefully researched film is too sympathetic to the 19 men, and relatives of the victims have said it should not have been made so soon after the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in September 2001.
Kamel said the movie, set to air on the US HBO network in January, had been careful to avoid political sloganeering.
“If someone were to make a film about Muslim suffering every day, it would be imperfect. If you just tell stories, people will want to know every story. So here we start with one, and maybe tomorrow there will be another one,” said the New York-based actor.
“I know that as a people, when we go out in public our vocabulary tends to become a bit numb. You can sense how people emotionally want you to stop your ranting.”
