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Rebel

Rebel

Movie · 2022 · 15 people

The duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah wrote and directed the 2022 drama and thriller Rebel. A co-production of Belgium, Luxembourg and France, it was released in Turkey under the title Asi. It shows how war in Syria tears apart a Muslim family over the future of its youngest member. The film premiered on May 26, 2022 in the midnight screenings of the Cannes Film Festival and runs a little over two hours.

Kamal (Aboubakr Bensaihi) is a young rapper living in Belgium. He sets out to help war victims in Syria but, once in Raqqa, is forced to join ISIS militias. His younger brother Nassim, left behind, is drawn to a radical group that promises to bring him back together with Kamal. Their mother Leïla (Lubna Azabal) does everything she can to save her sons. Amir El Arbi, Tara Abboud and Younes Bouab complete the cast.

Jan Van Dyck shares the screenplay credit with the directing duo, and the production company is Caviar Films. It opened in France on August 31 and in Belgium on October 5, 2022, through BAC Films and Wild Bunch, and in Turkey on March 17, 2023, through Başka Sinema. At the 12th Magritte Awards it received four nominations, among them Best Actor for Bensaihi and Best Actress for Azabal.

DirectorAdil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Production companyCaviar Films

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Cast

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Lubna Azabal Lubna Azabal Actor · 53 years old Leila Aboubakr Bensaihi Tara Abboud Amir El Arbi Younes Bouab Kamal Moummad Fouad Hajji Nassim Rachi Saïd Boumazoughe Malak Sebar Majd Eid Tommy Schlesser Jennifer Heylen Ala Riani Hani Al Khalidi

Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Rebel tries to see radicalisation not only from the front line but from inside the home of a Muslim family living in Belgium. A young man who sets out to help and is forced to join the militia, and a younger brother left behind who falls for the same movement's promises, make concrete how young people searching for belonging in Europe can be targeted. The mother's struggle shows that this pulls in an entire family, not one person. What makes the film matter is that it casts the family as victims of the machine rather than culprits, and taking the radical group's promise seriously keeps it from being an easy cautionary tale.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

The directing duo's boldest move is to put war drama and thriller inside the story of a young rapper. A narrative that slides between three languages carries the characters' in-between state into the form itself. The ambition does not always add up, though: running the two brothers' and the mother's strands in parallel thins the weight of each, and the second half feels its length. Its selection for a Cannes midnight screening says something about its genre energy, but that energy at times clashes with the gravity of the subject. The acting nominations at the Magrittes suggest the family drama is what really carries the film.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humor and heart.

It deals with very heavy subjects: war, armed militias and young people being drawn into them, so it is not for children. Teenagers can watch it with an adult present and a conversation afterwards. Seeing how radical groups deceive young people can be a valuable warning. A mother fighting for her children is also something parents will feel.

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