The first teaser trailer has been released of Kathryn Bigelow's movie about the special forces mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

The roughly one-minute clip from the Hurt Locker Oscar winner conveys the sense of frustration among US officials wanting to make bin Laden pay for the September 11 attacks and other al Qaeda atrocities.

One character says 'We are still no closer to defeating our enemy', while another says 'No birth certificate, no cellphone - the guy's a ghost'.

The trailer makes extensive use of overhead satellite images, starting with Ground Zero in New York and ending up with a triangular area that later turns out to be Abbottabad in Pakistan.

A character is seen getting out of a car and using a walking stick. This is believed to be bin Laden, as the 54-year-old is thought to have needed a stick in his later years.

Bin Laden is played by 29-year-old British actor Ricky Sekhon in the movie.

The phrase 'Zero Dark Thirty' is US military slang for some time very early in the morning. Its British military equivalents are 'Dark O'Clock' or 'Stupid O'Clock'.

Bin Laden was actually killed at around 1am local time by members of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group - better known by its old name of Seal Team 6.

The operation to locate the al Qaeda leader is referred to in the film as the greatest manhunt in history.

The trailer says: 'The story you think you know. This is how it happened.'

The preview's boast may not be too far from the truth, as Bigelow and fellow producer and writer Mark Boal received 'extremely close, unprecedented and potentially dangerous collaboration' from the Obama administration.

Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter King, a Republican who first raised questions about the bin Laden movie last summer, said newly-released documents confirmed his suspicions.

Mr King said the Defence Department had granted Bigelow and Boal access to a planner, operator and commander of Seal Team 6.

Other documents showed the filmmakers met White House officials on at least two occasions to discuss the movie.

A CIA email indicates that Bigelow and Boal were granted access to 'The Vault', which is described as the CIA building where some of the tactical planning for the raid took place.

Mr Obama's opponents claimed the too-close co-operation with the film-makers was a publicity stunt ahead of the US presidential election.

But the movie may not help Mr Obama as much as his critics might have thought, as the poll takes place in November, while Zero Dark Thirty comes out in America on December 19.

The film, which was shot in India and stars Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Edgar Ramirez and Mark Strong, is being released in the UK on January 25 next year.