''Young Ahmed'' (french: Le Jeune Ahmed) is a 2019 Belgian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne (; born 21 April 1951) and Luc Dardenne (born 10 March 1954), collectively referred to as the Dardenne brothers, are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce, and direct their films together. The Dardennes ...

. The film revolves around a young Muslim boy from Belgium who plots to murder his teacher in the name of his religion. It was selected to compete for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the

2019 Cannes Film Festival The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president. The Palme d'Or went to the South Korean film ''Parasite'', directed by Bong Joon-ho; Bong became t ...

. At Cannes the Dardenne brothers won the award for

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

Plot

Ahmed, a 13-year-old, plots to kill his teacher, whom he believes to be an

apostate Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

after being radicalised by a local

imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...

. Ahmed is arrested and sent to juvenile detention, where he claims to be a reformed character.

Cast

* Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed * Olivier Bonnaud as Caseworker *

Myriem Akheddiou Myriem Akheddiou (born 27 September 1978) is a Belgian stage and film actress. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and began working in theatre after developing an interest in acting. She collaborated with directors Jean-Pierre and ...

as Inès * Victoria Bluck as Louise *

Claire Bodson Claire Bodson is a Belgian stage and film actress. She studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and began working in theatre after developing an interest in acting. After some stage experiences at the Théâtre de l'Ancre in Charleroi, Bodso ...

as Mother * Othmane Moumen as Imam Youssouf

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "''Young Ahmed'' doesn't represent the Dardennes brothers' most developed work, but solid acting and a socially conscious story help compensate for its flaws."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Young Ahmed 2019 films 2019 drama films 2010s French-language films Belgian drama films Films directed by the Dardenne brothers French-language Belgian films