Reviews

Beyond Belief

Tears without embellishment

By PETER KEOUGH | February 13, 2008

3.0 Stars

Patti Quigley with Afghan widow

Be forewarned: this is the kind of movie that will make you take down the Web site shown at the end and send in a contribution. It’s also the kind of movie that poses an alternative strategy to the one that has led to so much unnecessary grief in the wake of 9/11. Boston area housewives Susan Retik and Patti Quigley were both pregnant when their husbands died on hijacked flights that day. They bonded over their shared grief, and when the US invaded Afghanistan, they did not exult — they empathized with the plight of the thousands of widows left behind. So they founded “Beyond the 11th,” an organization that raises awareness about and money for these innocent victims. Director Beth Murphy lets her subjects speak for themselves with a minimum of embellishment, and so the moments of stark poignance — the two women at Ground Zero about to start their fundraising bike ride back to Boston, their first meeting with the Afghan women they have aided — draw tears without exploiting them. 97 minutes | MFA: February 16-17; March 1-27

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