MovieChat Forums > The International (2009) Discussion > Why Turkey and not Pakistan?

Why Turkey and not Pakistan?


BCCI in essence was a Pakistani bank with its headquarters in Karachi, Agha Hasan Abedi and all the top level executives of the bank were Pakistani, except for the frontman Gaith Phairon who now resides in Pakistan but is of Saudi origin.

10,000 of the 12,000 employees of the bank were Pakistani and it has deep connections with ISI, basically the Pakistani Army and Government in general. It was involved in nuclear armament of Pakistan, funding to mujahideen, and a banking outlet of the rich and famous from the muslim world to the terrorists and drug dealers.

Why did they not choose Pakistan as the location for shooting and why was the mention of other such things as its connection with CIA omitted.

By the way, the people of this bank now Al-falah bank, Phairon group of Pakistan and many more billion dollar conglomerates which proves that they had enough clout and secrets that there lives were spared.

Here is what was said about the bank:

Time magazine reporters Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne will later describe it as “a Karachi-based cadre of bank operatives, paramilitary units, spies, and enforcers who handled BCCI’s darkest operations around the globe and trafficked in bribery and corruption.”

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They chose Turkey cos it was just a fictional script based on facts. The screenwriter was not exactly writing a script based out of the actual bank (cos it might have caused an uproar).
The CIA is mentioned - When the old scag spills the beans to Owen in the end, he does say that the CIA is also a part of it, as are the Russian organized crime.
Thanks for your information though...was interesting.

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It's self-explanatory.

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