Layla M. (2016)

Awards
- 6 wins & 8 nominations total

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.

6saddamchouhan-83007

A devout Muslim girl unknowingly got into extremists in the director's mind.

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.

10tuanadenizyagci

We all need a place to belong

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.

10searchanddestroy-1

What a good surprise

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.

6manugw

To the point, nothing else

At a time of the ISIS raucous war in the Middle East, a Muslim teen with a strong identity falls prey to Jiddahists, trading her confortable life in a working decent family in The Netherlands for an unknown future. Strong character but naive beliefs do the rest. Modest production, conveys the idea and tells a lesson

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Did you know

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Trivia
The song Layla played at the hotel is called Ya Ghayeb, it is a love song by the Lebanese artist Fadl Shaker who in 2011 gave up music for religious reasons, joined a group of radical Sunni militiamen and sang for the Islamic Salafism. Shaker now is serving 15 years sentence with hard labor for his participation in clashes with the Lebanese army.

Goofs
When Layla and her husband arrive in what is supposed to be Israel, one can see a lot of military vehicles driving by (especially Hummers). All of them are painted in sand color. Israeli military vehicles are olive drab.