'United 93' actor denied entry to U.S. for film's premiere
Last Updated: Monday, April 24, 2006 | 12:57 PM ET
CBC Arts
A British-based Iraqi actor who stars in the new film United 93 has been denied entry into the U.S. for the film's premiere.
In the film, Lewis Alsamari plays the lead hijacker on board United Airlines Flight 93 during the Sept. 11 attacks. He told reporters last week that he believes his nationality is the reason he has not been granted an entry visa.
"I think this was because I am still an Iraqi citizen and fought in the Iraqi army – but that was because I was forced to," Alsamari told London's Evening Standard newspaper last week.
He called it "disappointing" not to be able to visit New York, where the film is set to open the Tribeca Film Festival Tuesday.
"I have still not seen the film. I have only seen footage," he said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in London told the Associated Press Alsamari had not given sufficient notice about his trip. Officials would try their best to get him to New York but could give no guarantee, she said.
The visa snafu is not the actor's first. When the film was in production, the 30-year-old Alsamari was granted entry to the U.S. only the day before filming was scheduled to start.
Alsamari, whose credits are largely in British TV such as spy series Spooks, the new version of soap opera Crossroads and the drama At Home with the Braithwaites, deserted from the Iraqi army in 1993. After living in Jordan for two years, he moved to the U.K. to seek asylum, which he was granted in 1998.
Directed by British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, United 93 is an account of United Airlines Flight 93, which was flying from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, Calif., when it crashed in rural southwest Pennsylvania.
U.S. government officials believe that hijackers were trying to divert the plane towards the White House in Washington, D.C. The official 9/11 Commission report released last year said the plane crashed as passengers tried to wrest control of the cockpit.
The hijacking has previously been dramatized in the made-for-TV movie Flight 93, which aired on U.S. network A&E in January, and in the documentary The Flight That Fought Back.
United 93 is the first of several films about the Sept. 11 attacks scheduled to hit the big screen this year. Others include the documentary The Saint of 9/11 and the Oliver Stone film World Trade Center.
