Young Ahmed

"The directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have built a solid career on characters who are left behind, outcasts. This was the case of the unemployed woman in Two Days, One Night or the boy abandoned by his father in The Kid with a Bike. Now, in The Young Ahmed, winner of the Cannes Film Festival's Best Director award, the directors' gaze falls on religious fanaticism. Ahmed, the protagonist, is the typical impressionable character, but one that arouses anger in the audience. In part he is a victim, in part he is a tormentor. And from this, the Dardennes build a difficult and uncomfortable film, showing the coldness of the boy at the same time as they accuse society of leaving him behind. There is a lack of subtlety, so often seen in other films by the brothers. But the result still brings light to this delicate subject. And most importantly: with the realistic, almost documentary style of the two filmmakers."