Subdued in mood and palette, “Torn” sensitively explores the aftermath of a mall bombing through the eyes of two mothers who each lost a teenage son in the explosion.

Drawn together at the disaster site and the police station, Maryam (Mahnoor Baloch), a poised Pakistani-American real estate agent, and Lea (Dendrie Taylor), a struggling office cleaner, form a tentative friendship. But when Maryam’s deceased son is learned to have frequented a mosque attended by a radical Muslim, and becomes the bombing’s prime suspect, hostility and defensiveness swiftly eradicate the women’s mutual empathy.

As questions and revelations about both boys begin to surface, the director, Jeremiah Birnbaum, keeps the emotions convincingly intense if largely internalized, forcing the actors to express themselves in small, profoundly human gestures. Fathers — one Muslim, one evangelical Christian — hover helplessly on the margins, each having paid a price for his religious beliefs.

Slowly uncovering the prejudices that calamity can unleash, Michael Richter’s screenplay lays bare the damage wrought by Sept. 11 while deftly dodging hysteria, wondering how we differentiate between innocent teenage behaviors and dangerous red flags. Most of all, it wonders if we can ever fully know the people we live with, leaving the question to resonate as deeply as the two women’s grief.