French
France
Two parallel stories, two teenage girls, one an easily influenced potential Jihadist, the other an excellent student brainwashed by an on-line relationship with a Muslim man.
Sonia, 17, almost commits terrible acts in order “to guarantee her family a place in heaven”, while Melanie, 16, a cellist out to change the world, falls in love on the internet with “a prince”. At first, radicalization takes shape as a revolt against Western values, in anti-capitalism and a rejection of hedonistic consumerism.
Director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar (Les héritiers) puts together a star-studded cast in a penetrating study of the gestation of Western jihadism, with textbook cases on how to deal with on-line indoctrination and radicalization of young people.