Film Screening: Rebel

• Date: 06 October
• Location: Filmhuis Den Haag

The poignant story of two brothers who from Belgium end up in the war in Syria leaves a crushing impression.

Direction: Adil & Bilall
Belgium 2022
With: Fouad Hajji, Tara Abboud, Lubna Azabal

Rebel is about identity, meaning and radicalisation. Aboubakr Bensaihi (Black) plays Kamal from Molenbeek who, in his tough rap clips, rhymes about life on the street, tears through the city on loud motorbikes and doesn't turn up his nose at a drug deal. But when he gets himself into trouble for the umpteenth time, his mother Leila (Lubna Azabal) thinks it's enough: she sends Kamal out of the house to protect her youngest son Nassim (played by El Arbi's little brother Amir) from his bad influence.

Kamal, who has been shaking his head at the TV news about Bashar al-Assad's atrocities - the film takes place in 2013 and 2014 - decides that he can make himself more useful in Syria than in Belgium: he leaves to go help the suffering population, but is conscripted by ISIS against his will. Meanwhile, in Molenbeek, Nassim, who mirrors his big brother, becomes increasingly radicalised. His mother has to go to extremes to save what is left of her family.

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