Le Jeune Ahmed (2019)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Film Review

With Le Jeune Ahmed, that esteemed duo of Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne are the latest to clamber aboard the radicalisation bandwagon that is sweeping European cinema at the moment.  Coming just a few weeks after André Téchiné's L'Adieu à la nuit (2019), their latest sober social realist offering serves up another depressing portrayal of a youngster's conversion to Islamist terrorism, and whilst the film impresses with its unstinting realism and solid performances it shows all too plainly that the Dardennes haven't the remotest grip on the subject of their film and are content merely to use it as a thin pretext for a study in teenage alienation.  For a more committed and insightful work about radicalisation, Téchiné's film serves the bill somewhat better, as do earlier films by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar's (Le Ciel attendra) and Mohamed Ben Attia's (Mon cher enfant).

The Dardenne brothers are justly renowned for the raw authenticity they bring to their unique brand of social realist drama, with a minimalist yet searingly honest style of storytelling that continues to have an immense impact.  We shouldn't be surprised that Le Jeune Ahmed was honoured with the Best Director award at Cannes in 2019 - this being the film about today's hottest topic to be directed by Europe's most prominent filmmakers.  The Dardennes had already taken the top prize at Cannes, the Palme d'or, for two earlier films - Rosetta (1999) and L'Enfant (2005) - although this year they lost out to Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho.

Le Jeune Ahmed presents a predictably grim tale of contamination and survival against the odds that allows its authors to once again meditate upon the unfathomable and perverse character of human nature.  With its ultra-violent outbursts and highly controversial subject matter, it is by far the most provocative film the Dardennes have given us so far, but its too mechanically orchestrated narrative and failure to tackle the phenomenon of radicalisation at anything more than a superficial level makes it frustratingly difficult to engage with.

The film is unique in the Dardennes canon in that it does not require us to have a scintilla of sympathy with the central character.  Played with a Bressonian absence of emotion by screen virgin Idir Ben Addi, the titular Ahmed comes across more as a machine than a credible human being, one programmed for destruction by a cynically manipulative imam (a disappointing caricature).  From the outset, it is evident that the film's authors have no intention of making Ahmed a believable character - he is merely intended to be a stark representation of a type, the alienated youngster who is easily lured into serving the cause of Islamic fundamentalism by self-sacrifice.

Whilst we may be intrigued by the boy's experiences as he is worked on by religious fundamentalists and equally manipulative social workers, at no point do we feel sympathetic towards him, or have any notion of what lies behind his susceptibility to radicalisation and violent acts.  His domestic background is sketched somewhat hazily, with vague references to an absent father and cousin who apparently died on a Jihad mission.  Ahmed never gets a chance to establish himself as an autonomous individual - he is merely a ball in a pinball machine, with others controlling the paddles that send him on his perilous path to destruction. The Dardennes seem to have no interest in probing the boy's psychological makeup.  He remains a closed book - a depressing admission on the part of the authors that radicalisation is something that will forever be beyond our comprehension.

Film Synopsis

Ahmed is a 13-year-old boy who lives with his mother and sister in a Belgian town.  Recently, his mother has noticed a dramatic change in his behaviour.  More withdrawn, he has no time for the video games that used to monopolise his attention and he is becoming increasingly antagonistic towards his sister.  Ahmed has fallen under the influence of a persuasive imam, who has convinced the boy that he must serve in the Holy War against the infidel.  To that end, the teenager attacks his Moslem teacher Inès with a knife, to punish her for dating a Jewish man.  The murder attempt fails and Ahmed soon finds himself in a centre for juvenile offenders.  Here, under a concerted programme of rehabilitation by psychologists and social workers, he appears to become a reformed character.  Seemingly repentant, the boy is given the opportunity to visit  Inès and apologise for his attack.  It never occurs to his reformers that he actually intends using this opportunity to complete his divine purpose...