Yeslam Binladin: Just don't mention Osama

You won't see his name on any movie credits, but Yeslam Binladin, older brother of Osama, is fast establishing himself as a film producer. He is involved in three new films by the maverick Danish auteur Lars von Trier. (One of the first titles he backed, Von Trier's and Jorgen Leth's The Five Obstructions, is to be released in the UK next week.)

The Swiss-based businessman, who also owns a villa in Cannes, is a devoted movie fan who used to make shorts when a teenager and describes Von Trier as his hero. "Dancer in the Dark was one of the most emotional films I've seen in many, many years," he states, and is equally enthusiastic about Von Trier's Breaking the Waves.

Given that Von Trier is regularly attacked for anti-US bias (Variety called the Danish director's most recent feature, Dogville, "an ideologically apocalyptic blast at American values"), some will see it as apt that a Bin Laden is such a staunch champion of his work. However, Binladin has long been estranged from his half-brother, leads a secular lifestyle, and is as enthusiastic about American movies as he is about European auteurs. Asked about his favourites, he mentions Schindler's List, Manhattan, anything by Kubrick, and Citizen Kane. Tarantino gets a thumbs-up, too.

He has always loved films. "I was about 13 or 14 when I had my first camera and it was a Super-8," Binladin tells me. "At that time, I made several small fictional films with members of my family and students from my school." These included a Western and a bank hold-up movie.

Binladin is on the board of Almaz Film Production, a Swiss-based outfit run by Gerald Morin, a flamboyant figure who used to work as Federico Fellini's assistant on such classics as Roma, Amacord and Casanova. While Morin is responsible for running Almaz, Binladin is actively involved in reading scripts and deciding which projects Almaz will back. The two men meet every Monday to discuss company business and exchange scripts. Binladin also has the family business, the Saudi Investment Company to oversee. "Gerald does the day-to-day running of Almaz," explains Binladin. "None the less, I am very interested in the films we look into, and I follow the progress of these films."

Morin and Binladin first encountered one another at a film festival in Geneva in 1994. Binladin agreed to sponsor various festival initiatives and the two men became friends. They formed Almaz Film Productions in April 2001. Since then, they have co-produced half a dozen films, including The Five Obstructions and The Dogville Confessions, a "making of" documentary about Dogville. Von Trier has also asked them to invest in Manderlay, the Dogville sequel, which will focus on America's racism. Meanwhile, they're committed to backing the documentary about Von Trier's forthcoming Wagner Ring cycle at Bayreuth, and Mission in Hell, a documentary about the Swiss medical teams assigned to helping the German army during the Second World War.

Binladin hasn't been credited on any Almaz film. When I ask whether this is because he is worried about how critics and audiences might react if they see a Bin Laden listed as an executive-producer, he replies, tersely: "Almaz Film Production was created before September 11, 2001. My name did not appear then and has not appeared since."

At one stage, Morin tried to persuade Binladin to take a credit, but he refused. "Yeslam doesn't have a very large ego," Morin says. Not that Binladin has been shy about using the family name. There were reports last year that he was planning to launch a clothing line under the Bin Laden name (Morin claims that the plans were hatched before September 11, and then quietly shelved after the atrocities on that day). He also recently set up a charitable foundation bearing the family name. "He used his name very clearly. He said his name had to be protected, not destroyed by his brother," Morin observes.

Yeslam and Osama have rarely come face to face. There were 29 girls and 25 boys in the Bin Laden family. Their father Mohammed bin Laden, an industrial tycoon, died in 1968, when Yeslam was 18 years old. At that stage, Morin claims, Yeslam had not yet met Osama. "They met three times. The last time was in 1981, when all the family tried to be together for the first day of Ramadan."

Since September 11, Binladin has made strenuous efforts to disassociate himself from his half-brother and has issued statements denouncing him. However, for some in the film business, that's not enough. Distributors seem happier for him to remain an invisible man. Even Jorgen Leth claimed to be surprised of Binladin's involvement in his project.

Morin, who helped Binladin to get his Swiss citizenship, knows what he is up against. "He had a lot of problems. People said he was a terrorist, or that he managed drug money. They said that he was a crazy man. I said that that wasn't true. I've known Yeslam for many years. We know about Osama, but out of 54 children, to have one who is crazy is not a lot."