BBC Four: Were you prompted to make the film by any particular events?
Jihan El-Tahri: I'd done a film called The Koran and the Kalashnikov, and had filmed some of Bin Laden's camps in 1992 in Sudan. After that project I'd done quite a bit of research into Bin Laden himself. I wanted to do a film about this new breed of warriors after the fall of the Soviet Union - taking Bin Laden and saying that these people have found a voice. The project was turned down because they thought I was pinning the whole story on one man.
When 11 September happened people asked me to do things but I decided not to get involved: I didn't think anyone knew what had really happened. But I was interested in why 15 of the 19 involved were Saudis and decided to look at the history of the country to understand it.
BBC Four: One of your interviewees said that Bin Laden's purpose was to create an association in Americans' minds between Saudi Arabia and terrorism, do you think this has actually happened?
JET: Undoubtedly. It's gone beyond that. The first few months after 11 September the onslaught on Saudi Arabia was intriguing, particularly for an Arab like myself, an Egyptian, because we always think of Saudi Arabia as not very far from being American. I think that it's gone from there to be very related to Arab Muslims. People don't choose their words very precisely any more, 'Muslim fundamentalist' is now immediately associated with terrorism.
BBC Four: Do you think that the focus in American public opinion has now shifted to Iraq rather than Saudi Arabia? Is the heat slightly off the Saudis?
JET: No I don't, because I honestly think that the Saudi thing is an integral part of the whole American vested interest. There are two different groups in the American administration. Some are for continuing with the alliance and thinking more of oil and a different group really wants to get as far away from the Saudis and anything related to them as they can. Saudi oil, a quarter of the world's reserves, cannot be disregarded that easily. So no matter what happens in Iraq, Saudi Arabia remains an issue.
The Saudis are really worried that this idea of the Americans invading in 1973 was never completely buried. Now if the Sauds fall there isn't a coherent nationalist sentiment in Saudi Arabia. The eastern province would be very easily annexed to Iraq because they are Shi'ites.
BBC Four: Giving the documentary the title you do seems to indicate something particular about this state and that the House of Saud effectively is Saudi Arabia...
JET: This particular nation was put together by the House of Saud. You can't say the same for Egypt, you can't say the same for the Sudan, you can't say the same for even some of the smaller sheikdoms, but Saudi Arabia is made up of nine provinces and each and each one has a completely different history and topography. It was consistently the House of Saud which managed to unify this huge desert wasteland.
BBC Four: If you had to look ahead 10 years how would you predict the state will look?
JET: There's a very important reform movement, steered mainly by the second or third generation of Saudi princes who realise it's their asses on the line. Half of them don't want to be in an archaic state, the way it's run today. I think that there are enough people who realise that it's the corrupt elders who were going to send the whole country down the tubes. The Crown Prince is almost 80 and his number two is 76, they're all very healthy old men, so maybe they can survive another 10 years, but one of them is very much for reform and the other is more "it's my father's land and I'll eke out whatever money I want from it". If this branch that has a vested interest gets the upper hand then I don't see any future for them.
BBC Four: And would you say that the House of Saud has done a good job of walking the tightrope between tradition and modernisation?
JET: Just looking into their history I was very impressed. I'm not saying they are the best thing that ever happened, but just look at where they started. In the 1920s no one set foot inside Saudi Arabia, no Western man had ever crossed this place because it was riddled with bandits and raiding parties. So to go from that to where they are today - I think they've been very cunning and you can't ignore their achievements.
BBC Four: What's so fascinating as well is seeing other periods of history from another perspective - like the Vietnam War - I really had no idea that America was considering invading Saudi Arabia.
JET: Nor did I. The whole thing about the Saudis giving oil for Vietnam was like a bombshell; I hadn't connected the Vietnam War to the 1973 War at all.
BBC Four: And the other big thing was the first Gulf War. I'd no idea that the Saudis financed that and bankrupted themselves doing it!
JET: Yes, people still talk about the Saudis as if they're rich - they're not rich. They haven't been rich for a long time. There is an obvious temptation to go straight for the veils, straight for the cutting of hands, straight for the stuff that we think we have to talk about. I really attempted not to be biased - neither for them nor against them. I was very tempted to put in the beheadings though - they make great television.
BBC Four: Was there anything you would particularly have liked to have included?
JET: Oh yes, I had another hour of absolutely juicy stuff. I had a story about the sale of Awax, one of the biggest arms sales between the Americans and the Saudis and I got the whole inside story. It was James Baker who was doing the sale himself and he told me all the bits off the record. I had absolutely amazing stuff but you're going to have to wait for the book now.
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