Young Ahmed | |
---|---|
French | Le Jeune Ahmed |
Directed by | Luc Dardenne Jean-Pierre Dardenne |
Written by | Jean-Pierre Luc Dardenne |
Produced by | Jean-Pierre Dardenne Luc Dardenne Denis Freyd |
Starring | Idir Ben Addi |
Cinematography | Benoît Dervaux |
Edited by | Marie-Hélène Dozo Tristan Meunier |
Production companies | Les Films du Fleuve Archipel 35 |
Distributed by | Cinéart (Belgium) Diaphana Films (France) |
Release dates | |
Running time | 84 minutes |
Countries | Belgium France |
Language | French |
Box office | $1.5 million [2] [3] |
Young Ahmed (French : Le Jeune Ahmed) is a 2019 Belgian drama film directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The film revolves around a young Muslim boy from Belgium who plots to murder his teacher in the name of his religion. [4] It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. [5] At Cannes the Dardenne brothers won the award for Best Director. [6]
Ahmed, a 13-year-old, plots to kill his teacher, whom he believes to be an apostate after being radicalised by a local imam. Ahmed is arrested and sent to juvenile detention, where he claims to be a reformed character.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 59% based on 82 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Young Ahmed doesn't represent the Dardennes brothers' most developed work, but solid acting and a socially conscious story help compensate for its flaws." [7] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [8]
Award / Film Festival | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Cannes Film Festival [9] | Palme d'Or | Nominated | |
Best Director | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | Won | |
César Award [10] | Best Foreign Film | Nominated | |
Lumières Award [11] | Best International Film | Nominated | |
Magritte Award [12] | Best Film | Nominated | |
Best Director | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | Nominated | |
Best Screenplay | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actor | Othmane Moumen | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Myriem Akheddiou | Won | |
Claire Bodson | Nominated | ||
Most Promising Actor | Idir Ben Addi | Won | |
Most Promising Actress | Victoria Bluck | Nominated | |
Best Editing | Marie-Hélène Dozo | Nominated | |
Valladolid International Film Festival [13] | Best Film | Nominated | |
Best Screenplay | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | Won | |
Best Editing | Marie-Hélène Dozo and Tristan Meunier | Won |
L'Enfant is a 2005 Belgian film directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, starring Jérémie Renier and Déborah François. The film was released under its French title in the US, and as The Child in the UK.
Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his work is characterised by emphasis on social and class themes, genre-mixing, dark comedy, and sudden tone shifts.
Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, collectively referred to as the Dardenne brothers, are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce, and direct their films together. They also own the production company Les Films du Fleuve.
The Unknown Girl is a 2016 mystery drama film directed by the Dardenne brothers, and starring Adèle Haenel, Jérémie Renier, and Louka Minnella.
Okja is a 2017 science-fantasy action-adventure film directed by Bong Joon-ho with a screenplay by Bong and Jon Ronson from a story by Bong. The film is about a young girl who raised a genetically modified "super pig", and, after she is taken to the United States, goes on a mission to rescue her from mistreatment at the hands of the meat industry. An international co-production of South Korea and the United States, it stars an ensemble cast headed by child actor Ahn Seo-hyun, along with Byun Hee-bong, Yoon Je-moon, Choi Woo-shik, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins, Shirley Henderson, Daniel Henshall, Devon Bostick, Giancarlo Esposito, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, who co-wrote the film with Han Jin-won. The film, starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, Park Myung-hoon, and Lee Jung-eun, follows a poor family who infiltrate the life of a wealthy family.
Happy as Lazzaro is a 2018 Italian-language fantasy drama film written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where Rohrwacher won the award for Best Screenplay.
The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president for the main competition. South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for the drama film Parasite; Bong became the first Korean to win the award.
Atlantics is a 2019 internationally co-produced supernatural romantic drama film directed by Mati Diop, in her feature directorial debut. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Diop made history when the film premiered at Cannes, becoming the first Black woman to direct a film featured in competition at the festival.
Little Joe is a 2019 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Jessica Hausner. Starring Emily Beecham as Alice Woodard, a plant breeder and single mother who creates "Little Joe", a plant that gives its caretakers joy.
Bacurau is a 2019 Weird Western film written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. It stars Sônia Braga, Udo Kier, Bárbara Colen, Thomas Aquino, Silvero Pereira, and Karine Teles. The film, a co-production between Brazil and France, revolves around Bacurau, a fictional small town in the Brazilian sertão that is beset by strange happenings following the death of its matriarch, Carmelita, at the age of 94.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a 2019 French historical romantic drama film written and directed by Céline Sciamma, starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. Set in France in the late 18th century, the film tells the story of a lesbian sexual affair between two young women: an aristocrat and a painter commissioned to paint her portrait. It marked Haenel's final film role prior to her retirement from the French film industry in 2023.
It Must Be Heaven is a 2019 internationally co-produced comedy-drama film directed, written and starred by Elia Suleiman. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
Mati Diop is a French film director and actress. She won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival for her feature film debut, the supernatural romantic drama Atlantics, and the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival for her second feature film, the documentary Dahomey. As an actress, she is known for the drama film 35 Shots of Rum (2008).
On a Magical Night is a 2019 comedy-drama film written and directed by Christophe Honoré and starring Chiara Mastroianni, Vincent Lacoste, Camille Cottin and Benjamin Biolay. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where Mastroianni won the award for Best Performance.
César Díaz is a Belgian-Guatemalan film director, screenwriter and editor.
Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean film director, producer, and screenwriter who began his career in 1994 after creating the short films White Man, Memories in My Frame, and Incoherence. In 1997, Bong wrote the feature film Motel Cactus, for which he also served as an assistant director. Two years later, he wrote Phantom: The Submarine, and later made his feature-length directorial debut with Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000). In the following years, Bong wrote and directed Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006), Mother (2009), and Snowpiercer (2013), films which received "universal acclaim" from critics.
Sharon Choi is a South Korean interpreter and film director. She came to prominence as director Bong Joon-ho's Korean–English interpreter during the 2019–2020 film awards season, which saw Bong's film Parasite winning the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture. During both ceremonies and others, Choi assisted Bong and other Parasite cast and crew members, such as actor Song Kang-ho, in delivering award acceptance speeches. During such appearances, Choi's interpreting skills garnered significant media attention and praise.
Sleep is a 2023 South Korean black comedy horror mystery thriller film written and directed by Jason Yu, in his feature debut. The film stars Jung Yu-mi and Lee Sun-kyun. It screened in the Critics' Week section at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2023. It was released in South Korea on 6 September 2023. Lee died on 27 December 2023, making Sleep one of his final film appearances.