The result is, "11'09"01 — Sept. 11," an unusual movie, both touching and disturbing, which comprises 11 short films made by 11 international directors, each lasting 11 minutes 9 seconds, plus one final image. The movie, which had its premiere out of competition at Venice Film Festival, was shown at the Toronto Film Festival and opened in Paris on the same day.

"Sept. 11 was an American tragedy, but also a universal catastrophe," said Mr. Brigand, 43, who is the movie's artistic producer. "The entire world shook, but what was it thinking? The directors were given total freedom to respond. The only constraints were time, a maximum budget of $400,000 each and a commitment not to promote hate or violence or to attack peoples, religions or cultures."

Three sequences critical of the United States prompted some Americans who saw the movie in Venice to term it anti-American. But most episodes are personal reflections on the tragedy viewed through different prisms like mourning, love, poverty, war and refugees. "I think that rather than 11 shorts, we have a feature film of 11 sequences, like a mosaic," Mr. Brigand said, "but it is not at all anti-American."

Mr. Brigand said that, while "11'09"01 — Sept. 11" has been acquired for distribution in several European countries as well as in Japan and Israel, he believed it was "too soon" for it to be shown in the United States. "I wanted it released on Sept. 11, but not in the United States," he said. "People are still in shock. But I think that in time people will be able to see that Sept. 11 was an American drama, but also a drama that affected all of humanity."