The War Within (film)
Encyclopedia
The War Within is a 2005 American drama film directed by Joseph Castelo. Created by Honet Films and released by Magnolia Pictures
, the film stars Ayad Akhtar
, Firdous Bamji
, Nandana Sen
and Sarita Choudhury
. The War Within premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival
.
i engineering
student in Paris
who is apprehended by American intelligence services
for suspected terrorist
activities. After his interrogation, Hassan undergoes a radical transformation and embarks upon a terrorist mission, surreptitiously entering the United States
to join a cell based in New York City
. After meticulous planning for an event of maximum devastation, all the members of the cell are arrested, except for Hassan, Khalid and their cell leader Izzy. With no alternative and nowhere else to turn, Hassan must rely on the hospitality of his former best friend Sayeed, who is living the American dream with his family in New Jersey
. Deciding to go forward and carry out his own attack, Hassan takes advantage of Sayeed's generosity while plotting his strategy and amassing materials to create explosives. Eventually, Hassan's skewed religious fervor clashes with his feelings for Sayeed and his family, especially Sayeed's young son Ali and Sayeed's sister Duri, whom Hassan begins to fall in love with. When Izzy is arrested Khalid and Hassan decide to use the explosives in a suicide attack on Grand Central Station instead. Duri discovers Hassan mixing the explosives in her brother's house and when Sayeed tries to stop him he knocks him out and runs away. Duri follows Hassan in order to stop the attack. At the last minute, Khalid loses his nerve and Hassan goes to the target alone. Duri arrives at Grand Central Station just before Hassan detonates his explosive belt
. After the attack, Sayeed is held by the police who believe that he helped Hassan.
. The trio formed the idea for the film after reading an article about a Palestinian
suicide bomber. They approached both Miramax Films
and Fine Line Features
to finance the film, but both companies refused, citing that the subject matter was too controversial for American audiences.
The film was shot on location in New York City
and Jersey City. Sameer Bajar and Afia Nathaniel
provided the Urdu
dialogues for the film.
and 61 out of 100 on Metacritic
.
Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor, and is a holding of 2929 Entertainment, owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films....
, the film stars Ayad Akhtar
Ayad Akhtar
-Early life and career:Akhtar was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Pakistani parents. He attended Brown University where he majored in theater. After graduation he moved to Italy and studied acting with Jerzy Grotowski for a year. He then returned to the US to teach acting classes with Andre Gregory...
, Firdous Bamji
Firdous Bamji
Firdous Bamji is an Indian-American actor.-Personal life:Bamji was born in Mumbai, India and attended Kodaikanal International School, a small American boarding school in the mountains of South India. He also grew up in Bahrain and South Carolina. Bamji now lives in New York City and...
, Nandana Sen
Nandana Sen
-Early life:Sen was born in Kolkata, West Bengal to a Bengali Hindu family. She is the daughter of Nobel Laureate and Bharat Ratna economist Amartya Sen and Padma Shri winner Nabanita Dev Sen, one of the most prominent authors in the contemporary Bengali literature....
and Sarita Choudhury
Sarita Choudhury
Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury is an English actress.-Biography:Choudhury was born in Blackheath, London, England, of half Bengali-Indian and half English descent. Her parents, Prabhas Chandra Choudhury, a scientist, and Julia Patricia Spring, married in 1964 in Lucea, Jamaica...
. The War Within premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
.
Plot
The War Within is the story of Hassan, a PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
student in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
who is apprehended by American intelligence services
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
for suspected terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
activities. After his interrogation, Hassan undergoes a radical transformation and embarks upon a terrorist mission, surreptitiously entering the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to join a cell based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. After meticulous planning for an event of maximum devastation, all the members of the cell are arrested, except for Hassan, Khalid and their cell leader Izzy. With no alternative and nowhere else to turn, Hassan must rely on the hospitality of his former best friend Sayeed, who is living the American dream with his family in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Deciding to go forward and carry out his own attack, Hassan takes advantage of Sayeed's generosity while plotting his strategy and amassing materials to create explosives. Eventually, Hassan's skewed religious fervor clashes with his feelings for Sayeed and his family, especially Sayeed's young son Ali and Sayeed's sister Duri, whom Hassan begins to fall in love with. When Izzy is arrested Khalid and Hassan decide to use the explosives in a suicide attack on Grand Central Station instead. Duri discovers Hassan mixing the explosives in her brother's house and when Sayeed tries to stop him he knocks him out and runs away. Duri follows Hassan in order to stop the attack. At the last minute, Khalid loses his nerve and Hassan goes to the target alone. Duri arrives at Grand Central Station just before Hassan detonates his explosive belt
Explosive belt
An explosive belt is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers...
. After the attack, Sayeed is held by the police who believe that he helped Hassan.
Cast
- Ayad AkhtarAyad Akhtar-Early life and career:Akhtar was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Pakistani parents. He attended Brown University where he majored in theater. After graduation he moved to Italy and studied acting with Jerzy Grotowski for a year. He then returned to the US to teach acting classes with Andre Gregory...
as Hassan
- Firdous BamjiFirdous BamjiFirdous Bamji is an Indian-American actor.-Personal life:Bamji was born in Mumbai, India and attended Kodaikanal International School, a small American boarding school in the mountains of South India. He also grew up in Bahrain and South Carolina. Bamji now lives in New York City and...
as Sayeed
- Nandana SenNandana Sen-Early life:Sen was born in Kolkata, West Bengal to a Bengali Hindu family. She is the daughter of Nobel Laureate and Bharat Ratna economist Amartya Sen and Padma Shri winner Nabanita Dev Sen, one of the most prominent authors in the contemporary Bengali literature....
as Duri
- Sarita ChoudhurySarita ChoudhurySarita Catherine Louise Choudhury is an English actress.-Biography:Choudhury was born in Blackheath, London, England, of half Bengali-Indian and half English descent. Her parents, Prabhas Chandra Choudhury, a scientist, and Julia Patricia Spring, married in 1964 in Lucea, Jamaica...
as Farida
- Charles Daniel Sandoval as Khalid
- Virun Sriram as Ali
- Anjeli Chapman as Rasheeda
- John Ventimilgia as Gabe
- Aasif MandviAasif MandviAasif Hakim Mandviwala , known professionally as Aasif Mandvi , is an American actor and comedian. He began appearing as an occasional contributing correspondent on The Daily Show on August 9, 2006. On March 12, 2007, he was promoted to a regular correspondent.-Early life and stage career:Mandvi...
as Abdul
- Ajay NaiduAjay NaiduAjay Kalahastri Naidu is an American actor.Naidu was born in Evanston, Illinois He attended Evanston Township High School. As an actor, he trained with the American Repertory Theater's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.His first professional acting job was the film ...
as Naveed
- Kamal Marayti as the Imam
- Samrat ChakrabartiSamrat ChakrabartiSamrat Chakrabarti is a British-American actor and musician of Indian descent.-Early life:Born in London, England to immigrant parents from Kolkata, India, he performed in Indian community functions in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was exposed to music, poetry and the plays of Rabindranath...
as Interrogator
- Wayman Ezeil as Izzy
- Mike McGlone as Mike O'Reilly
- Christopher Castelo as Steven
- James Rana as Saudi Man
- Christine Commesso as News Anchorwoman
- John Zibell as Officer Carroll
Production notes
Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo and Tom Glynn wrote the film while students at Columbia University's Film SchoolColumbia University School of the Arts
The Columbia University School of the Arts , also known simply as the School of the Arts or as SoA, is the division of the university that offers Master of Fine Arts degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, and Writing, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies...
. The trio formed the idea for the film after reading an article about a Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
suicide bomber. They approached both Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
and Fine Line Features
Fine Line Features
Fine Line Features was the speciality films division of New Line Cinema. It produced, purchased, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flavor than its parent company...
to finance the film, but both companies refused, citing that the subject matter was too controversial for American audiences.
The film was shot on location in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Jersey City. Sameer Bajar and Afia Nathaniel
Afia Nathaniel
Afia Nathaniel is an independent Pakistani filmmaker who works primarily as a writer, director, producer and editor. She is a graduate of the Film Division at the Columbia University School of the Arts .-Early life:...
provided the Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
dialogues for the film.
Director's statement
Reception
The War Within received mainly positive reviews from critics. It has an aggregate rating of 72% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and 61 out of 100 on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
DVD release
The DVD for The War Within was released on January 17, 2006. It features commentary by Joseph Castelo and Ayad Akhtar, 8 deleted scenes and an alternate beginning.Awards
- 2005 Nomination for Satellite Award for Best Film – Drama
- 2005 Nomination for Satellite Award for Best Original ScreenplaySatellite Award for Best Original ScreenplayThe Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay is an annual award given by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :*1996: Lone Star*1996: The People vs...
- 2006 Nomination for Independent Spirit Award for Best ScreenplayIndependent Spirit Award for Best ScreenplayThe Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Screenplay is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:* 1985: The Trip to Bountiful - Horton Foote** After Hours - Joseph Minion** Blood Simple - Joel and Ethan Coen...
- 2006 Nomination for Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male - Firdous Bamji