Politics - and specifically theimpact of September 11 - has emerged as one of the strong themes among theBritish films showing at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 18-29).

Kenny Glenaan's well received Yasmin, which tracks how the attack onthe World Trade Centre alters the world of a non-devout Muslim woman in theNorth Of England, had a charged UK premiere. At a question and answer session followingthe film, one Muslim audience member became tearful as she said the film -which was researched for over a year among Muslim communities in the UK and waspenned by Full Monty writer SimonBeaufoy - accurately mirrored her experiences of living in the UK since theattacks.

In a similar vein, Ken Loach'sromantic drama Ae Fond Kiss tacklesthe impact on a Muslim family of the relationship between their only son and aCatholic girl, while Antonia Bird's HamburgCell - which premieres on Wednesday (August 25) is the story of thetransition from student to terrorist of one of the September 11 hijackers.

"After a period of introspection andreflection after September 11," Yasmindirector Glenaan told ScreenDaily.com,"films like Yasmin are providing people with a forum. It gives ordinary peoplea chance to say 'I've had experiences like this." He added that he thought theaudiences for his film - which has yet to secure a British distributor - "wouldbe the same as who would go to see Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11."

Among the other British filmsscreening at Edinburgh, there have been particularly strong receptions amongcritics for Shane Meadows' violent revenge tale Dead Man's Shoes and Pawel Pawlikowski's My Summer Of Love, which features standout performances from leadactresses Natalie Press and Emily Blunt.

Less well received has been RichardJobson's martial arts picture, ThePurifiers, which was the subject of a stinging review in The Scotsman newspaper on Saturday.