Oscar-nominated director calls for more 9/11 films Berlin Film Festival runs through to February 19

Feb 10, 2012, 18:53 GMT

Berlin - The director of the Oscar-nominated 9/11 family drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close called Friday for more movies to be made about the tragic events surrounding the terrorist attacks on the US.

Speaking at a press conference marking the film's screening at the Berlin Film Festival, British-born Stephen Daldry said: 'It amazes me that more films aren't made about 9/11.

'My personal opinion is that there are millions of stories that should be told, personal stories and I don't just mean the stories in New York, I mean stories from around the world,' the three-times Oscar-nominated director said.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close tells the story of the attacks on New York's Trade Center through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy who has been traumatized by his father's death in the building.

It is among the films nominated for best picture at next month's Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Based on the bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is being screened out of competition in Berlin.

In Daldry's film, the boy, Oscar Schell, finds a key that he believes belongs to his father, who is played by veteran US actor Tom Hanks.

The discovery of the key results in Oscar setting off in search for the lock that fits the key thinking that his father might have left himself something he can remember him by.

Played by Thomas Horn, Oscar is accompanied on part of his journey by an elderly German man, his grandmother's lodger.

Legendary Swedish-born actor Max von Sydow plays the lodger, who no longer speaks as a result of another catastrophic event in history - the allied bombing of Dresden during the Second World War. The 82-year-old von Sydow has been nominated for a best supporting actor at the Oscars.

Oscar's journey across New York in search of the lock and his deep sense of pain about what happened to his father places enormous strains on his relationship with his mother, played by leading Hollywood actress, Sandra Bullock.

He is tormented by images of his father as possibly being one of those, who was forced to jump for their lives as their only escape from the inferno that engulfed the Twin Towers after it was attacked.

At the press conference Daldry was asked whether he thought filmmakers should also explore the sense of upheaval in other countries such as Iraq following the attacks on New York and Washington.

Replying Daldry said he had wanted to use his film to look at the consequences on just one family of the events more than a decade ago.

But he went on to say: 'I think there should be films about the consequences of what happened in Iraq or what continues to happen in Afghanistan. I think it's important those stories are told.'

Having previously directed The Hours and The Reader, Daldry also said that he was aware that his 9/11 film might stir up a controversy. 'There are lots of issues with 9/11,' he said.

Some he said may think it was too soon or too much while others may think it was too little.

As someone who was too young to remember the attacks but has grown up hearing the stories of that day in September, Horn said: 'People should be willing more to talk about 9/11 and the consequences of 9/11.'