On the Merits of Films about Terrorist Attacks

Here’s an article on why the paused/proposed film “They Are Us” shouldn’t happen. Let’s instead propose four ways films about the 15 March terrorist attacks could happen, instead. We should first begin with what They Are Us was/is, and then do four further film concepts.

They Are Us

I haven’t read the script leak. But I think I know what this film is/was from all the articles about it that I’ve read.

TAU is a hagiographic account of the Mosque Attacks. Which is to say, it’s about Jacinda Ardern. Or, possibly, NZers. In any case, it’s a praise piece designed to say “this terrible thing happened, these people did the best anyone could in response”.

White Knight

This film is about a white leftist student raging against the xenophobia of NZ in the wake of Labour’s immigration dogwhistling in the 2017 election. The story should be the progression of the student through some kind of antiracism organisation and its climactic scene involves the student sitting down in a lecture on the 15th of March.

The idea of the movie? People like the student never even dreamt of the possibility of the attack.

This one is semi-autobiographical. The “progression of the student through some kind of antiracism organisation” is the entirely made up part of the brief blurb... I’m a slacktavist par excellence, but I think the story needed some kind of structure so the organisational march gives it that. Aside from that, this is a “my truth” film.

26–1–6–2–3–14

This film is about crossnational family from Australia and New Zealand on Australia Day (26–1) and Waitangi Day (6–2) and, finally, the day after the attack (3–14). I would set the movie in the US. The basic set up is that it’s very slice of life and involves ironic political argument. That is, the movie will superficially seem to be an attempt of a non-othered immigrant family to maintain the “national days” of the home countries, in the face of bewildered and sceptical children (who, for sake of argument, will have never lived in either country). Meanwhile, the parents hold anti-immigration beliefs and both parameterise and defend what we might term “middle New Zealand” on very “white” grounds. But, then, on the day of the Mosque Attacks, these same parents make their Facebook profiles “They Are Us”.

The idea of the movie? People like the perpetrator seem entirely ordinary because the ideology is mundane.

(The final date is (a) reversed and (b) in the wrong order because is the previous day in the US.)

I have no specific inspiration for this movie’s plot. It’s possibly not a good idea to tell a non-specific truth about a real world event but I think people will accept this hyper-reality.

Boon

This film is the complete opposite of TAU. It’s a movie about a prime minister interested in power whose credibility is slipping away day by day, as the radical promises of the election meet the actual character of the politician, and the electorate realises this. That is, until there’s a terrorist attack, which allows the politician to focus on the PR of the Crisis. The story would start and end with two different opinion polls being read by the PM as they move into the House.

The idea of the movie? Bad people can do good things for bad reasons.

For reasons, this movie would probably have to be highly fictionalised. However, it seems the most accurate description of Ardern from her actions… and so that is the truth of this film.

What the Hell is Halal?

This film is about a teenage Muslim girl who moves to a new school, fails to break into any established social circle, is then forced to take a gap year due to visa issues, struggles with visa renewals, watches the 2017 election take an anti-immigrant turn and then, finally, at long last manages to obtain citizenship… on the fifteenth of March.

The idea of the movie? To contrast the struggle of (immigrant) Muslim communities to actually be welcomed with the pat, self-satisfied slogan “they are us”.

This one is my take on the author’s:

But if a story is to be told at all, it has to begin with what it means to live in New Zealand in the aftermath of 9/11, amid years of growing vitriol against Muslims. We cannot move forward unless we dispel illusions about who we are as a country. A film that elevates fictitious narratives about love is not an ode to heroes, but an exercise in gaslighting, Hollywood style.

Well, I mean, the second sentence is what they all are. This one just draws specifically on the first sentence. It’s inspired by two people I went to school with… one of whom was “the Muslim girl” that I never knew beyond that (in my defence, she sat on literally the other side of the only class we shared*… I mean, I knew her name at the time, too), whilst the forced gap year happened to a friend of mine (afaik she’s not Muslim).

I’m not sold on the title but I was really struggling with coming up with one.

You’ll note that most of my pitches place the terrorist attack right at the very end of the film. This is mostly because I’d just been reading a piece about contextualisation, but it may be the best approach for handling temporally proximate attacks that aren’t framed from the perspective of a first hand account. I think of, as a contrast, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Centre. I actually really like that film… I’ve seen it a bunch of times… where the actual 9/11 events are basically not depicted. The movie is very much about the two main characters and their families’ experience of survival. It’s probably possible to do something tasteful and uplifting but cognisant of the wider tragedy for the the Mosque Attacks but I don’t know that angle, so I didn’t try to find it.

*At the start of the year, I effectively sat by myself. Over the course of the year, my friends misbehaved themselves over to my vicinity.