Iran's Makhmalbaf (Blackboards) shows us Afghan refugee children instructed by their teacher on the events in New York, which they can't even begin to comprehend. Earthy, muddy and wonderfully moving--especially when the children try to understand: "God doesn't destroy humans" ... "He doesn't have airplanes!" France's Lelouch (And Now Ladies and Gentlemen) gives us a small drama set in New York, where a French couple (a deaf woman and her boyfriend) are struggling with their relationship when he leaves to take a deaf tour group to the World Trace Center. With her own world falling apart, she's not watching the images on the television in the next room. Very moving. From Egypt, Chahine (Destiny) directs a surreal segment involving a filmmaker's surreal encounter with the ghost of an American soldier killed in a Beirut suicide bomb. Awkward and strange, the lessons about the impossibility of redemption and forgiveness are laid on a bit thickly.

Bosnian Tanovic (No Man's Land) shows his home country in chaos--people wounded and grieving, unable to go home, women preparing to demonstrate against the loss of the town's male population when they get the news from New York and their march takes on a new meaning. From West Africa, Ouedraogo (Kini & Adams) gives us a Whistle Down the Wind-like story of a group of teens who think they've spotted Bin Laden on the streets of Ouagadougo. Desperate for money, the $25 million reward seems too good to be true. This comic adventure brilliantly combines world events with the local economic crisis. In perhaps the strongest segment, Britain's Loach (Sweet Sixteen) lets a Chilean refugee (Vega) narrate a tale of another September 11th, when a US-led coup bombed Santiago. Some 30,000 people, including the elected president Allende, were killed. And the newly installed Pinochet plunged the country into years of torture, murder and violence. Yes, it's shocking and horrible, and it just lets the facts speak for themselves ... with Vega's emotional response.

Mexican filmmaker Inarritu (Amores Perros) takes an experimental approach, leaving the screen completely blank except for brief glimpses of the worst footage--people jumping from the towers. The soundtrack features a blend of music, voices and news reports, all of which seems pretentious at first but then grabs hold emotionally and almost overwhelmingly in the end. Amazing. In what looks like a single take, Israeli director Gitai (Eden) shows us the aftermath of a car bombing in Tel Aviv, but as the film crew cover the event they're told their footage won't go out because something has happened in New York. Kinetic, gripping and bristling with chaos and frustration.

India's Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) tells a true story about a Pakistani family in New York looking for their missing son. Since he was a Muslim, and nowhere near the towers when the attacks happened, everyone assumes he was a terrorist. But his family quietly keeps searching, and the finale is powerfully moving. A stunning story! Sean Penn writes and directs the American entry, an intimate portrait of an old man (Borgnine), lonely after his wife's death, whose careful routine is strangely interrupted one morning. Finally, Imamura (Warm Water Under a Red Bridge) gives us a surreal story of a WWII veteran in Japan who thinks he's a snake. His family can't figure him out and are repelled by his actions (he literally bites the hand that feeds him!). It's filmed beautifully, but the allegorical meaning is a bit intense: "There's no such thing as a holy war."

It'll probably be a long time before the political situation in the USA calms down to the point of rationalism and this film can be seen and discussed there. But like Phillip Noyce's feature The Quiet American, this film needs to be digested and understood for what it is: not an attack on America, but rather an attempt to begin to understand what happened on 11 September and why. It also vividly confirms the true power of cinema ... and why the world so badly needs artists.

• To evoke the sheer scale of the shock wave which followed September 11.
• To testify to the resonance of the event throughout the world.
• To better convey the human dimension of this tragedy.
• To bring reflection to emotion.
• To give a voice to all.
• A collective film.
• 11 directors from different countries and cultures.
• 11 visions of the tragic events which occurred in New York City on September 11, 2001.
• 11 points of view engaging their individual conscience.
• Complete freedom of expression.