Artnewspress: The film “Young Ahmed” by Dardenne Brothers
Dardenne Brothers Come Back with a Film about extremism
The “Young Ahmed” is the latest Dardenne Brothers film which was screened in the 2019 Cannes Film Festival Competition this week and scored 2.4 out of 4 from the international critics.
Dardenne Brothers are two world known Belgian directors who has presented brilliant works at international festivals.
Cannes Festival has always been the constant glowing place for Dardenne Brothers . The two Belgian brothers have won the Palme d’Or twice for the films “Rosetta” and “L’Enfant”. The Dardennes received the best screenplay Award for the film “Le Silence de Lorna” in the 61th Cannes Festival and the other film ” The Kid with the Bike” was awarded the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix in 2011.
The new film directed by Jean Pierre and Luke Dardenne revolves around a Belgian boy who plots to murder his teacher under the influence of extreme religious currents.
The Screen Daily Critic, Allan Hunter believes “Young Ahmed” is a taut study of the religious extremism of a 13-year-old boy. He describes the “Young Ahmed” a kind of compelling social realistic drama which should be welcomed as a return to high quality films for these Dardenne Brothers after the disappointment “The Unknown Girl” in 2016.
Hunter states: ” Dardennes has constantly drawn our heart and passions to those marginalized and misunderstood by the society mainstreams. These two brothers are defenders of the oppressed.”
According to the Screen Daily critic, Ahmed is a complicated character, provoking both compassion and caution in the audience. There is a thriller element in the film, but the Dardennes Brothers avoid melodrama as they let the story unfold.
The Guardian critic, Peter Bradshaw has exceled the “Young Ahmed” as a powerful movie of a boy who is captured in the trap of dangerous ideologies. He believes that the Dardenne Brothers have returned to a keynote theme, expressed in “The Child” and “The Son”. He describes the theme as a vulnerability of young people in trouble with the law, and paradoxically their strength, and their will to survive.
Bradshaw critics the final scenes as rushes, perfunctory and unsatisfactory.
The Indie Wire critic, Eric Kohn, does not see the “Young Ahmed” as the best achievements of Dardenne Brothers . However, he believes that the film has a deep insight, exceling at showing how the struggle of underprivileged people can lead them down morally to arguable paths.
The Variety critic, Peter Debruge, points out the dark atmosphere of “Young Ahmed”- a kind of darkness which was never experienced before in the work of Dardenne Brothers. Comparing the other works of these two famous directors, he states that although in “Rosetta”, “the Child” and ” the Kid with a Bike” the character’s circumstances are likely harsh, but audiences can feel optimism behind those stories whereas in the film “Young Ahmed” this optimism is far-reached.
Hamid Touranpoor
