Rebel
Prior to their work on Batgirl, the Belgian-born Adil and Bilall once again exercise their skills with action-drama with a tale largely set in Syria.
The Belgian film Black made in 2015 gave notice that the Moroccan filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah had skills that could take them out of their adopted country and put them in the Hollywood spotlight. Indeed, by the time that my review of Black appeared, they had already arrived there and that led to their first American movie, 2020’s Bad Boys for Life, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Although it is partly set in Syria, their latest film to reach us, Rebel, is again a subtitled work, one centred on a family living in Molenbeek in Belgium, but this is no retreat from the Hollywood limelight since Adil and Bilall (their chosen designation) returned to the US to direct the big-budget but ill-fated Batgirl (the release of which was cancelled by Warner Bros.).
Hollywood’s continuing interest in Adil and Bilall is entirely understandable because Rebel illustrates, as Black did, their ability to handle action-filled tales with the kind of panache that is born of a real feel for cinema. In Rebel, the story told – one which again finds these two contributing as writers – is concerned with the way in which young Muslims living abroad are lured into going to Syria and joining Isis. The boy central to this tale and picked on in this way is only thirteen years old: that's Nassim convincingly played by newcomer Amir El Arbi. He is picked out by a local recruiter, Idriss (Fouad Hajji), who becomes aware of him due to what has happened to his older brother, Kamal (Aboubakr Bensaihi who also starred in Black). Kamal, while working as a DJ and also skilled with a camera, had become a repeat offender involved with drugs, and, having been severely castigated by his mother, Leila (Lubna Azabal), had sought to make good by going out to Aleppo as an aid worker. Once out there, however, he had been seized by Islamic State militia who had insisted that he shoot propaganda videos for them and then forced him to participate directly in a filmed execution. This video understandably horrifies Kamal's family but leads Idriss to turn his attention to Kamal’s brother with the aim of persuading Nassim that Kamal is a hero who has seen the truth and become a genuine supporter of Isis. How he succeeds in recruiting the boy is convincingly portrayed.
Rebel is, in fact, the story of these two brothers and of how their mother in desperation follows Nassim to Syria determined to at least save her younger son and to bring him back to Belgium. Just as Black featured youngsters – in that case youths involved in rival gangs in Brussels – so here the emphasis on the brothers has an appeal that could attract those who are of like age to become part of this film’s audience. As such, Rebel could have a beneficial influence since it develops its story in ways which make it a movie that reveals clearly the evils of radicalisation. At the same time, it consciously offers action and suspense of a kind popular in mainstream cinema and carries it out with notable aplomb through the sharp editing of Frédéric Thoraval and the adroit camerawork of the photographer Robrecht Heyvaert. There is also for a while a sub-plot by way of a love story concerning Kamal and a woman named Noor (Tara Abboud) who is a doctor and a Sunni Muslim.
In seeking to widen its popular appeal even further, Rebel, ill-advisedly for material that draws on real events, seeks to add a musical element. This is acceptable enough when, instead of fades to black between sequences, the screen shows a design against which we hear a vocal comment geared to the tale. But on some occasions this element is imposed distractingly and inappropriately on scenes being acted out. It is also the case that at 132 minutes the film rather outstays its welcome before signing off with a stylised epilogue. But it is confidently played (Lubna Azabal from 2010’s splendid Incendies brings her strength and sincerity to the role of the mother) and much of the action footage is spot-on, at once commercial, skilful and applied to a story that carries a moral message which could hit home even with viewers not expecting that.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Aboubakr Bensaihi, Lubna Azabal, Amir El Arbi, Tara Abboud, Younes Bouab, Fouad Hajji, Malak Sebar, Ala Riani, Qomoq Ayham, Saïd Boumazoughe, Kamal Moummad, Céline Delberghe, Blerim Destani.
Dir Adil and Bilall (i.e. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah), Pro Bert Hamelinck and Dimitri Verbeeck, Screenplay Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Jan van Dyck and Kevin Meul, Ph Robrecht Heyvaert, Pro Des Pepijn Van Looy, Ed Frédéric Thoraval, Music Hannes De Maeyer with Oum and Bakr, Costumes Uli Simon.
Caviar Films/Calach Films/Le Collectif 64/Beluga Tree-Signature Entertainment.
132 mins. Belgium/Luxenbourg/France. 2022. UK Rel: 16 January 2023. Available on digital platforms. Cert. 15.
