I just want to agree with the last reviewer in saying this is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen (and I just watched it for the first time in 2012). I remember this event happening but had no idea of the full drama until I watched this brilliantly put together film. What makes this so powerful is down to the incredibly vivid accounts from selected survivors who suffered the ordeal. It is impossible not to empathise with these poor people who were unlucky enough to be in the theatre on that evening. They speak eloquently, describing how they felt at each horrific turn of event and we are left in no doubt of how this trauma will stay with them forever. Ten minutes in and I could already feel a hard knot of fear in my own stomach. For example, one survivor recalls how she could feel the entire row of seats vibrate underneath her as people realised they had been taken hostage and were physically trembling. From start to finish we get sensory descriptions like this and I found it impossible not to feel sickened and frightened. And if that wasn't enough, there is an abundance of video and photographic imagery provided that just makes it even more harrowing. It's not a subject I was even interested in and now I will never forget what these people went through. That for me is a measure of the quality of any documentary.
