Layla M.

Treads the water on exposing both Islamophopia and the tendency of Muslims living in the western world to radicalize and fundamentalize under that stress, within the context of ISIS and controversial political leaders such as the Dutch Geert Wilders and the American president Donald Trump. A tricky subject that I thought was handled quite excellently in this Dutch film. Good character study and a great performance by Nora El Koussour.

I wish that some of the characters had been a bit more fleshed out, such as the father played by Mohammed Azaay and the husband played by Ilias Addab. A good foreign film that tackles a timely topic.

No time is wasted in establishing that our title character knows where she stands politically. It is easy to feel sorry for her situation and empathize how one can be seduced by the rhetoric of radicals when you are helpless against law enforcement, stupid people and your own parents.

She never seems like more than a child as she dives into the world political activism only to find reality does not always meet expectation.

The breezy efficient tone make this palatable that isn't a comedy but know how to time itself. A TV series of this story would just feel like a chore.

A simple cycle of inspiration and disillusionment within earshot of a more complicated world but this is definitely about the personal journey and how our politics is often more about reacting to ourselves than to the world.

My favorite scene is Layla playing soccer with the children.

If you are fascinated by the process of how people in the developed world are jihadized then you'll be disappointed but this was definitely made with an agenda and that was to humanize, without apologism, a certain kind of person who we are punishing greatly for understandable errors.

We can find this kind of feature in France from time to time. Daring social movie showing the Muslim extremist danger for our society. It shows very well how an ordinary Morocco descent young woman gets involved with Djihad groups. A highly modern scheme which makes you deeply think without any clichés, from the Inside. It shows you how it works. Then you make your own opinion. Period. The female director gave us the perfect job. Saw it on Netflix.

We should also be talking about how the girl was made into feel that she's doing something wrong, that's why she chose Islam. Kids dying, people being treated as lower than humans... This girl wanted to find a place of belonging, and spread peace, love and help to everyone. But to more she ached, to more people were against her, which caused her to be more violent and assertive. Why should there be a "You & Us" anyway? This is what the terrorists are doing, but we failed at making them know that it doesn't have to be like that.

Layla was nowhere wrong. She is a good muslim. She just wanted her rights. Right to hijaab, right to be equal, right to freedom of religion and a lot more. And when she felt she's not gonna live freely there. She choose to leave her family and marry her friend. It's not her fault whatever next happened. Why we are repeating these stories again and again. What if the director shows that the guy was a good Muslim and they lived their lives peacefully together and fought for their rights. But no, we are gonna show this islamophobia again n again.