Award-winning filmmaker Penny Woolcock has created a powerful film adaptation of American composer John Adams' critically acclaimed and controversial opera The Death of Klinghoffer.

The opera deals with the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, a Mediterranean cruise ship, by Palestinian terrorists in 1985. This act set in motion a series of events, which culminated in the murder of a Jewish American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer.

When The Death of Klinghoffer opera premiered in the United States in 1991 it generated tremendous controversy. At one extreme, it was denounced as unabashedly Pro-Palestinian - at the other, it was called a Zionist plot. The film addresses the complexity of the conflict head on, using archive footage to set the event in the context of the Middle East as a whole.

Director and scriptwriter Penny Woolcock has made a wide range of award-winning dramas and documentaries including a remarkable pair of dramas set on a Leeds housing estate: Tina Goes Shopping and Tina Takes a Break .

Musical Director John Adams, who conducted the recording of the opera with the London Symphony Orchestra, is one of the USA's foremost composers. His previous works include Nixon in China , Harmonium, Grand Pianola Music and El Nino.

The Death of Klinghoffer is Channel 4's seventh opera film, following on from La Traviata in Paris (live film), Powder Her Face , Owen Wingrave , Romeo and Juliet , Death of a Princess and Zoe.