'Extremely Loud' Director Calls for More 9/11 Films

(AFP) - The director of Oscar-nominated 9/11 drama "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," Stephen Daldry, told the Berlin film festival Friday he was amazed by the scarcity of movies about the attacks.

The 50-year-old British filmmaker said a decade on, cinema still had little to say about the suicide hijackings in New York and Washington -- and the thwarted hijacking in Pennsylvania -- in which some 3,000 people were killed, as well as the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It sort of amazes of me really that more films aren't made about 9/11. My personal opinion is that there are millions of stories that should be told, personal stories, and I don't just mean the stories in New York, I mean stories from around the world," he told reporters after a screening of his film.

After Hollywood films such as Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" and Paul Greengrass' "Flight 93," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is less about the attacks themselves than the shock and sorrow left in their wake.

The film, which is based on the bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer and has been nominated for an Academy Award for best picture, tells the story of a boy whose father was trapped in the World Trade Center following the attacks.

Daldry was asked whether the film's focus on America's ongoing grief did not lose sight of the suffering imposed on families where the US has since waged war.

"This particular story is focused on one family and the consequences on one family, but do I think there should be films about the consequences of what happened in Iraq or what continues to happen in Afghanistan? Yes, I do think that is true. I think it's important those stories are told," he said.

Daldry said the pain of September 11 remained raw in New York, where he has a home and where the film's images have come under sharp criticism.

"There's lots of issues around 9/11 that we were very aware of, and I suppose that's also because of the reaction and the response to Jonathan's book," he said.

"We were very aware that there would be a certain amount of controversy about what we would and wouldn't show. We tried to keep a number of family groups very close to us in the preparation for the film.

"In the end you had to trust your instincts about what you think is appropriate."

Copyright 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.