Actor in 9/11 film denied US entry

FACT and fiction appear to have been mixed up by US immigration officials after an Iraqi actor who plays a terrorist in a new film was denied entry to the United States to attend the film’s premiere.

Apparently British-based actor Lewis Alsamari was considered a security risk, although no official reason for his visa refusal was given by the US Embassy in London yesterday.

Mr Alsamari plays the lead terrorist in United 93, the controversial new film about the fourth hijacked plane on September 11, 2001, which went down in Pennsylvania.

The film will premiere at New York’s Tribeca film festival tonight.

“It would be so disappointing not to be able to go, because I have still not seen the film,” Mr Alsamari said yesterday.

He says he thinks he has been denied a visa because he is an Iraqi citizen and was once in the Iraqi army.

United 93 has already caused controversy in the US, with some cinemas pulling the trailer for the film after upset patrons in New York objected saying it was too shocking. It was too soon after the event to make such a film, some argued.

But since the film was screened for relatives of the deceased passengers of the doomed flight, reaction has been largely positive.

Directed by Briton Paul Greengrass, the film’s real-time, realistic approach is reportedly reminiscent of Greengrass’s other recent works: Bloody Sunday (2002) and The Murder of Steven Lawrence (1999).

One of the crucial questions critics will be looking forward to is how Greengrass depicts the final fate of United Airlines flight 93.

Did certain heroic passengers successfully get control of the plane and gain access to the cockpit after they fought back against the hijackers, or did the flight have some other mysterious fate?

The US public can see Greengrass’s view for themselves this Friday, when the film goes on general release stateside. We’ll have to wait until next September to see the movie, however.