Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, of regular to Cannes, where they again obtained the first prize with <em>The young Ahmed</em>, the implementation of the scene.
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July 1, 2020
Updated 4 July 2020 to 4h23
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The Dardenne brothers : a Portrait of the young fanatic in the fire
Eric Moreault
The Sun
PARIS — What is it that pushes a teenager of 13 years wanting to kill his teacher in the name of Allah? This fundamental question, that of radical terrorism, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have sought to present it unvarnished and without judgment in The young Ahmed, prix de la mise en scene at Cannes 2019. A hot topic which the friendly brothers were freely discussed in an interview with The Sun in Paris, last January.
Q what gave you the impetus? Is this a terrorist attack in particular?
JPD Multiple attacks. It is a character which it was thought, then there was Charlie Hebdo, the Bataclan, Brussels [at the airport]. Our characters always come from the present reality that surrounds us. We said : “it must be done.” (laughter) and We thought about a lot. This is when you have found the character of the young that it has really started. Our idea from the beginning, to measure the fanaticism of our character, it was to see if we can out — and not the other way around: how one becomes a fanatic.
Q This film would have been entitled to The outstretched hands. This is the story of a young indoctrinated, which is no longer able to see all the hands that are outstretched to help him to extricate himself from his prison of ideology.
LD It has lost the relation with the other, since he has permission to kill in the name of the property represented by his or her religion. All hands, except those who are like him, are the hands of enemies, it is necessary to convert willingly or by force.
Q The research have been many to dig into the topic?
JPD Much. There is a belgian police officer, Algerian origin and a muslim, who saw coming what happened. He has we are told a lot about the behaviour of young people, and parents. Then educators, judges, youth, families and internet sites. The survey was long. He had read the Quran also.
Q It had to be complicated enough to find an interpreter to Ahmed?
LD We said, like you, that it would be difficult to find parents who accept that their son plays the role, especially if they are of the muslim faith. Then we chose Idir [Ben Addi]. We read the script to the parents and we met. His mother said that he had cried in reading it and realized what it was. What has made him afraid at the beginning, it is that people do not manage to make the difference between the kid who plays and the one in real life.
Idir Ben Addi in the role of Ahmed.
House 4:3
Q This kind of absolute embodied by Ahmed, who made him to commit the irreparable, is it clean teen?
LD of course. It is also a film about adolescence, the age when one leaves childhood and dealing with a new continent that we do not know well, and where there is thirsty for the absolute. It is found that everything that surrounds us is a little warm, that our parents are not at the height, that, as it… yourself, it’s not going very well, and this thirst for the absolute comes to fill it. And this is where come of people such as the imam [who endoctrine Ahmed]. The fanaticism concerns not only people of the age of Ahmed. At a given moment, it is fiction, but there is a documentary aspect. We can’t tell anything. There are none of these young boys and girls who have committed criminal acts or who have killed someone have done the reverse. The religion is something that permeates.
Q In this context, is that in the end you has proved difficult to design?
JPD Yes. Unlike other films where it often tells of the encounters between the main character and the other characters, where you try to film the life, there, one has not found this to be a meeting that would have been able to bring it back to life. We found the meeting with him-even when he is afraid. It means this is not finished — there’s something that happened, where he realizes that life is stronger than death.
Q You refuse to make a judgment on your character. The viewer finds him / herself in a particular context because you do not give it necessarily the key to decode The young Ahmed, you leave cogitate. Is this what you wanted, it to do its own thinking in relation to what he sees on the screen?
LD A film is not finished in the eye of the beholder. It is true that a film is not a court, but it tells a story with a point of view. If we begin to judge right from the start, where is the place of the spectator? Be a spectator, it is also an adventure aesthetic, emotional… The distance with the character that we have under our eyes can fluctuate. Then, once the film is finished, say : “it moves things in me that I couldn’t even imagine.” Normally, it is expected to open up spaces of thoughts, encounters, emotions, discussions…
JPD When you see a movie or read a book, we sometimes say : “hey, there, I’m not okay.” You think you and the character, there’s a kind of inner dialogue. We tried that the audience is always in inner conversation with our character in hopes that by leaving the room, he speaks with someone else. The cinema is an art, and it is this that is fine, where everyone can say what he thinks about the movie. It remains a popular art. After this film, we did a lot of meetings with young students, including muslims. Those who feel targeted, it is necessary to take the time to explain that the fanaticism is not a muslim. There, they start to speak. We had many interesting debates with women, more than men, and young people. It was really good. Sometimes the school directors and the teachers said : “it is hard”. Perfect : talk about it. If you’re scared… It takes a boy to dare to say : “I think that Ahmed is not bad.” It is discussed. All are afraid of the violence. This is something that is terrible for them also.
The young Ahmed will be presented at the July 10,
The costs of this trip have been paid by Unifrance
