War Within (Blu-ray) (2005)

"Two Thumbs Up!  Ebert & Roeper
"A taut, compelling thriller.  Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
"This searing depiction of our seemingly endless 'war on terror' hits home in every sense.  Rolling Stone

Editor's Note This searing, controversial, and thought-provoking drama examines the motives and emotions behind terrorism. Co-writer Ayad Akhtar stars as Hassan, a Pakistani man who's falsely accused of terrorist associations, then imprisoned and tortured before finally leaving jail as a genuinely militant extremist. He goes to stay with his old friend Sayeed in New York (Firdous Bamji in a scene-stealing performance), where he explores the city, flirts with Sayeed's sister (Nandana Sen), and works with a group planning to bomb Grand Central. The impressive cast of unknowns and solid direction from Joseph Castelo make this tense, thoughtful drama an intriguing look at a subculture that, for obvious reasons, is more often demonized than dramatized.

	Ajay Naidu
	Ayad Akhtar
	Firdous Bamji
	Nandana Sen
	Ayad Akhtar, et. al. - Writer
	David Holmes - Original Music By
	Joseph Castelo - Director
	Malcolm Jamieson - Editor
	Mark Cuban - Executive Producer
	Ruben O'Malley, et. al. - Cinematographer
	Tom Glynn - Producer

Rolling Stone
"This searing depiction of our seemingly endless 'war on terror' hits home in every sense." 02/23/2006 p.74

Reel.com 9 of 10
Unlike the cardboard terrorists that pop up in every other Die Hard clone, the main character in the gripping political thriller The War Within is a truly frightening creation. And it's not because he's some outwardly evil boogeyman or steely maniac, but rather a soulful, handsome, almost erudite Pakistani engineering student named Hassan (Ayad Akhtar) who's simply on a mission from God - in this case, Allah. In a brisk 100 minutes, we get to know the conflicted, but driven Hassan so clearly, intimately and, most of all, humanly, that you have to keep remembering not to root for him to succeed in his quest for death and destruction. And that, my friends, is really scary. - Gary Goldstein

Variety 7 of 10
An honorable but failed attempt to dramatize the dynamics that propel a basically good man to become a suicide bomber, "The War Within" contains provocative points inside a dull package. Tracking the creation of a post-9/11 terror cell in New York and how one cell member struggles spending his last days with an innocent family who's housing him, pic is a frustrating example of a film confronting vital issues without making them cinematically engaging...Pic never follows through on the promising set-up, though, tending toward scenes just a shade from TV-standard obviousness and conversations generally bereft of subtext. - Robert Koehler