''The War Within'' is a 2005 American

political drama A political drama can describe a play, film or TV program that has a political component, whether reflecting the author's political opinion, or describing a politician or series of political events. Dramatists who have written political dramas i ...

film directed by Joseph Castelo, who wrote the screenplay with

Ayad Akhtar Ayad Akhtar (born October 28, 1970) is an American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter of Pakistani heritage, awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His work has received two Tony Award nominations for Best Play, an Award in Literature fr ...

and Tom Glynn. The film stars Akhtar as Hassan, a Pakistani engineering student who is apprehended by Western

intelligence services An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informatio ...

for suspected terrorist activities. It also stars

Nandana Sen Nandana Dev Sen (19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' (2005), starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitab ...

Firdous Bamji Firdous Bamji is an Indian-born actor and writer. Early life Bamji was born in Bombay, India, to a Parsi family that was residing in Bahrain. His father, Esadvaster, was the regional representative for Norwich Union Life Insurance Society. His ...

Sarita Choudhury Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury (born 18 August 1966) is a British actress, known for her role as Mina in the Mira Nair-directed feature film '' Mississippi Masala'' (1991). Choudhury has played roles in American and international films and te ...

, and Charles Daniel Sandoval. ''The War Within'' had its world premiere at the 30th Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2005 and a

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on September 30, 2005. The film was nominated for two Satellite Awards and two Independent Spirit Awards.

Plot

''The War Within'' is the story of Hassan, a

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

student in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, who is apprehended by American intelligence services for suspected

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

activities. After his interrogation, Hassan undergoes a radical transformation and embarks upon a terrorist mission, surreptitiously entering the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to join a cell based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. After they have meticulously planned an event of maximum devastation, the members of the cell are arrested, except for Hassan, Khalid, and their cell leader Izzy. With no alternative and nowhere else to turn, Hassan must rely on the hospitality of his former best friend Sayeed, who is living the American dream with his family in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. To go forward and carry out his own attack, Hassan takes advantage of Sayeed's generosity while plotting his strategy and amassing materials to create explosives. Eventually, Hassan's skewed religious fervor clashes with his feelings for Sayeed and his family, especially Sayeed's young son Ali, his eight-year-old daughter Rasheeda, and Sayeed's sister Duri, with whom Hassan begins to fall in love. When Izzy is arrested, Khalid and Hassan decide to use the explosives in a suicide attack on

Grand Central Station Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

. Duri discovers Hassan mixing the explosives in her brother's house. When Sayeed tries to stop him, Hassan knocks him out and runs away. Duri follows Hassan to stop the attack. At the last minute, Khalid loses his nerve and Hassan goes to the target alone. Duri arrives at Grand Central Station just before Hassan detonates his

explosive belt An explosive belt (also called suicide belt or a suicide vest) is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers. Explosive belts are usually packed with ball bearings, ...

. After the attack, Sayeed is held by the police, who believe that he helped Hassan.

Cast

as Hassan *

as Sayeed *

as Duri *

as Farida * Charles Daniel Sandoval as Khalid *Varun Sriram as Ali *Anjeli Chapman as Rasheeda * John Ventimilgia as Gabe *

Aasif Mandvi Aasif Hakim Mandviwala (born March 5, 1966), known professionally as Aasif Mandvi (, ), is a British-American actor, comedian and author. He was a correspondent on ''The Daily Show'' from 2006 to 2017. Mandvi's other television work includes the ...

as Abdul *

Ajay Naidu Ajay Kalahastri Naidu (born February 12, 1972) is an American actor best known for playing Samir in ''Office Space''. Naidu was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film '' SubUrbia''. Ea ...

as Naveed *Kamal Marayti as the Imam *

Samrat Chakrabarti Samrat Chakrabarti (born 22 August 1975) is a British-American film actor and musician of Indian descent. Early life Born in London to Indian Hindu Bengali immigrant parents from Kolkata. He performed in Indian community functions in Boston, ...

as Interrogator *Wayman Ezeil as Izzy *Mike McGlone as Mike O'Reilly *Christopher Castelo as Steven *James Rana as Saudi Man *Christine Commesso as News Anchorwoman *John Zibell as Officer Carroll * Angel Desai as Reporter

Production notes

Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo and Tom Glynn wrote the film while students at Columbia University's Film School. Castelo came up with the idea for the film after reading an article about a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

suicide bomber. They approached both

Miramax Films Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a lead ...

and

Fine Line Features Fine Line Features (often spelled as FineLine Features) was the specialty films division of New Line Cinema. From 1991 to 2005, under founder and president Ira Deutchman, Fine Line acquired, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flav ...

to finance the film, but both companies refused, citing the subject matter as too controversial for American audiences. The film was shot on location in

and Jersey City. Sameer Bajar and

Afia Nathaniel Afia Serena Nathaniel (born 1974) is an independent Pakistani filmmaker who works primarily as a writer, director, producer and editor. She is a graduate of the Film Division at the Columbia University School of the Arts (2006). Early life ...

provided the

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

and 61 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

DVD release

The DVD for ''The War Within'' was released on January 17, 2006. It features commentary by Joseph Castelo and Ayad Akhtar, 8 deleted scenes and an alternate beginning.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:War Within 2005 films 2005 drama films 2005 independent films 2000s political drama films 2000s Urdu-language films American independent films American political drama films Films about terrorism in the United States Films scored by David Holmes (musician) Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in New York City Magnolia Pictures films Films about Pakistani Americans 2000s English-language films 2000s American films