The events of 9/11 are burned into the collective consciousness as acts perpetuated by monsters: by someone less than human. Quite to the contrary, the mass murderers involved in the events at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were very human and that is the subject of the newest film from Antonia Bird. The film is a fictionalized account of the lives of Mohammed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Ramzi bin al Shibh when they were students in Hamburg, and traces their radicalization up until they were recruited by al-Qaeda. This fascinating drama is based on court transcripts, personal interviews, investigative files and unpublished correspondence. In the wake of an event that is polarizing the world and isolating traditional allies, The Hamburg Cell was a difficult film for producer Ronan Bennett to accept. Walking a fine line between simply putting a personality with motivations and ideals on the faces of 9/11′s perpetrators and sympathizing with them was a difficult task. But the very ordinariness of the attackers is what makes 9/11 so shocking and so necessary to understand.