Belgian Directors’ Film ’Rebel’ Explores Syrian War and Radicalization at Cannes Midnight Screening

Rebel tells the story of a young man named Kamal who has decided to go to Syria to help the victims of the war. "But upon his arrival, he is forced to join an armed group and finds himself trapped in Raqqa. His younger brother Nassim, who dreams of joining him, becomes an easy prey for jihad recruiters. Their mother Leïla then tries to protect her younger son," completes the synopsis.

"I consider this to be our most personal film of all the films we have made," said Adil El Arbi to Deadline. "It is a film about people we know or people we know whose family members and friends have lived through this. It was all of a sudden at a certain period around 2013, when so many people like us, of Moroccan origin in Belgium, left for Syria." He recalled that this was before the creation of the Islamic State in 2014 and that some of them became radicalized and were affiliated with this terrorist organization.

"We were able to see the evolution of what happened at that historic moment that preceded the war in Syria and we wanted to tell this story. We wanted to tell how jihad could seem romantic and heroic at first glance and how religion is used as a weapon," added the Belgian-Moroccan director.

Produced by Caviar, in co-production with Beluga Tree, Calach Films and Le Collectif 64, and in partnership with Los Morros and The Imaginatium Films, Rebel stars Aboubakr Bensaihi, Lubna Azabal, Amir El Arbi, Tara Abboud and Younes Bouab. Bac Films is the distributor.