At the end of the screening of "My Daughter the Terrorist" in April at the Full Frame film festival in Durham, a gentleman in the audience got up and made the simple but powerful statement, "There are no terrorists without victims."

"My Daughter the Terrorist" is a film made by Norwegian director Beate Arnestad about two young women suicide bombers of the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka. The film has generated a lot of interest because Arnestad convinced the famously elusive and secretive LTTE to let her make the film.

The conflict in Sri Lanka receives little coverage in the mainstream U.S. media. The LTTE has been at war with the Sri Lankan government for the past 25 years to create a separate Tamil nation within Sri Lanka. The war has claimed more than 100,000, mainly civilian, lives. The LTTE has terrorized and murdered Sri Lankans of all communities, and the organization is banned in many countries including the United States and the European Union.

The Sri Lankan state also has a poor human-rights record. Recently there has been an alarming increase in the numbers of murders and abductions in government-controlled areas of the country.

The LTTE is believed to be responsible for more than 300 suicide bombings in Sri Lanka and neighboring India. A disproportionate number of the suicide bombers are young women. Some in the Triangle Sri Lankan community were upset that the "premiere" documentary film festival in the country was screening a film about the LTTE and it's suicide bombers.

Just before the film was to be screened, there was a flurry of activity to convince the organizers not to screen the film. Despite the strong views, mostly against the film, no one had actually seen it. So a few of us decided to attend the festival and see the film.

"My Daughter" was screened as a double feature with "To See If I Am Smiling," a film by Tamar Yarom about young Israeli women serving in the army. In a brief introduction to the two films, Ariel Dorfman, the writer and playwright, described the films as depicting women as warriors rather than victims. I tried my best to watch the film with an open mind because all Sri Lankans, including the LTTE, have to engage one another and compromise to achieve peace.

Arnestad has stated that her intention in making this film was to explore what drives a person to become a suicide bomber. I was disappointed by the film because it gave me little insight into the psychology of suicide bombers. Most of the film consists of Arnestad interviewing the two girls and their mother and filming the girls when they are pretending to be training or stalking the enemy. The rest of the film is stock footage of fighting and terror incidents taken by the defense ministry or LTTE.

The two main characters display little emotion and were matter-of-fact about their willingness to blow themselves up. The only character I empathized with was the mother of one suicide bomber, who was dignified and talked about the sorrow of losing her daughter. In contrast to "To See If I Am Smiling," which showed the complex, contradictory emotions faced by women soldiers at war, "My Daughter" was flat. I was not surprised to learn that "My Daughter" won no awards at the festival in Durham.

The Q-and-A session that followed the film left me feeling angry and frustrated. Arnestad started by stating that these women were hand-picked by the LTTE for her film and that they were most likely kidnapped and recruited into the LTTE as children. She also said that if any of her subjects said anything critical of the LTTE, they would have been killed.

How can she claim that her film is an exploration of what motivates people to become suicide bombers? The film needs to have a clear description or disclaimer highlighting the conditions under which it was made.

I do not believe that Arnestad had any ulterior motives or that she is an agent of the LTTE. However, the film is already being used for political advantage. The main pro-LTTE Web sites have feature stories about how the premiere documentary film festival in the United States is screening a film about the LTTE.

I disagree with my Sri Lankan friends who are trying to get this film banned. But I do believe that organizations screening the film have a responsibility to provide the audience with a balanced background to the conflict and to highlight the highly restrictive conditions under which the film was made. Otherwise, some people might leave the film thinking that Dharsika and Pulhalchudar, the two suicide bombers, represent a special brand of new warrior.

The sad truth is that they are victims of the conflict in Sri Lanka who have been abused and manipulated both as children and adults.