Page - 207 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

remarkably progressive. Yet despite his resistance to Taliban rule, Mohsen finds himself caught up in a mob mentality as a crowd publicly executes a woman by stoning her to death in the market. In a parallel story, Atiq is a prison war- den for a women’s prison; his wife, Musarrat, is slowly dying of cancer, causing Atiq much anguish. When a fatal accident occurs, the lives and fates of the two couples become intertwined, inevitably leading to a confrontation of interpre- tations regarding the true Muslim faith – will Atiq remain faithful to the Taliban or his conscience? This conflict between divergent Qur’anic interpretations is also clearly pres- ent in the Dardenne brothers’ in-competition film, Le Jeune Ahmed (Young Ahmed, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, BE 2019), for which they won Best Di- rector. While their previous films have elicited religious and theological inter- pretations,2 this is the Dardennes’ most direct portrayal and analysis of reli- gion through their cinematic post-secular parables. In fact, Le Jeune Ahmed is likely to be the brothers’ most divisive and controversial film in its empathet- ic-yet-opaque exploration of Islamic extremism via the radicalization of 13-year- old Ahmed (Idir Ben Addi), who plots to kill his teacher based on his interpre- tation of his local imam’s fundamentalist teachings. Myriem Akheddiou gives a wonderful performance as Ahmed’s teacher-turned-victim, Inès. Ahmed at- tends Inès’s after-school classes, but he has recently become quietly antagonis- tic towards her due to the influence of the imam (Othmane Moumen), whose extremist views coincide with Ahmed’s idolized cousin, a jihadist terrorist. The imam declares Inès an apostate “bitch” who is trying to destroy their religious traditions. Yet Inès is also a faithful Muslim and embodies the Islamic pillar of charity via her generous actions towards educating young people. In this, the 2 See, for instance, Journal of Religion, Film, Media 2, 2 (2016) on the Dardennes’ cinema, https:// jrfm.eu/index.php/ojs_jrfm/issue/view/3 [accessed 3 June 2019]. Fig 4. Le Jeune Ahmed (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, BE 2019). Press Still: Cannes Film Festival. Festival Review: 72nd Festival de Cannes | 207www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 204–213