Les mécréants

What to say? an impossible situation, that forces the people to think about what they want to have been once dead. It's a horrible theme horrible but a needed one, because one day or another we might all be targets of terrorists so we might better be ready. As noted the other commentator, it's also a reflection about the power of doubt. Could it be THEY are right? How to make progress when stuck with our ideological total opposite? Paradoxically, it would seem the best reaction to fanaticism is not to raise against it but to doubt! And at least in one case, that strategy seems to work. This is really "reality TV" - much more so than anything I've seen in a long while. It is hard to see, but one cannot remain indifferent, and in the end, just like the characters, we do not know what to think!... in the end I only could think, "what a movie"... and "it had to be done to make up people about the real world we live in".

This is the story of a week-long encounter between three kidnappers and the five (two women and three men) they kidnap in Morocco; all are Moroccans. Herein lies the USP of the film: violent disagreements and negotiations -- not only over life and death, but also over art, dress and individual choice -- between these two groups are not divided along lines of nationality, or the West and the East, but between people with different ideas about religion and life who otherwise share many things, including language, in common. From the stunning first frame till the chilling last one, this is a beautifully shot film, and almost the entire action takes place in an isolated farmhouse in the countryside. This serves to enhance the tension between the characters.

Despite the use of mobile phones by the radical Islamist kidnappers, and their attempts to connect to the internet, ultimately their decisions are guided not by their handlers but by their own conscience. The kidnappers and the members of the theater troupe who are kidnapped are each given their own identity, rather than being portrayed as stock characters, and the resolution to their encounter is sketched beautifully, and poignantly, on screen.

When this film was screened in India in August 2012 after being showed in Morocco in January the same year, the audience was enthralled, and the director, who was present, mentioned quite a few details after the screening that put the film in perspective. It was shot on a very low budget, the actors worked for free, and the message the director wanted to share with the audience was that doubt about one's convictions is often more valuable than certainty. This is a film that will stay with me for a long, long, time.