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100 MINUTES | ENGLISH + URDU | KENDALL SQUARE + EMBASSY Is the war on terror creating yet more terrorists? Director Joseph Castelo isn’t the filmmaker to provide an answer. This first American film to view terrorism through the eyes of a Muslim extremist is exactly the kind of ripped-from-the-headlines melodrama that you’d expect to find on television, with a title like "A Bomber in the Basement." Not that The War Within is any less subtle an encapsulation of the struggle faced by Hassan (co-screenwriter Ayad Akhtar), a Pakistani student who was unjustly imprisoned and tortured by Western intelligence. Vengeful, he joins an Islamic terrorist cell in New York, whose plans will blow both Hassan and Grand Central Station into the East River. When most of the cell is arrested, Hassan seeks refuge with childhood friend Sayeed (Firdous Bamji). Will he choose romance with Sayeed’s sister (Nandana Sen) over his duty to Allah? Don’t even consider it. Wait instead for Paradise Now, a galvanizing Palestinian terrorist-cell drama by Hany Abu-Assad, opening in three weeks.
BY BRETT MICHEL
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