16/10/2024 - Brothers Ish and Monir Ait Hamou take inspiration from their childhood to draw the portraits of two brothers in a working class Brussels neighbourhood

The debut feature by Ish and Monir Ait, BXL [+see also:
interview: Ish and Monir Ait Hamou
film profile], was unveiled as a world premiere at the Film Fest Gent – a dive into the filmmakers’ childhood neighbourhood, following two brothers up close as they try to make their dreams come true. Ish Ait Hamou first became known as a choreographer, but also as a writer. His first two novels, Hard Heart and The Beauty We Share, were rather successful with Flemish readers. Monir Ait Hamou has been an actor for about two decades. In 2009, he played one of the Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile] in Nabil Ben Yadir’s film, a huge success, and he also appeared in Image [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Adil El Arbi and Bilal Fallah. In 2018, he wrote and directed the TV series Champion for the RTBF.

BXL therefore tells the story of Tarek (Fouad Hajji), 26, and Fouad (Yassir Grief), 12. The former, employed in a packaging factory and MMA champion, dreams of emancipating himself through sport. The latter, a young man made vulnerable by a traumatic event, tries to overcome the trials and tribulations of adolescence with courage and lightheartedness. The film opens with the song La Valse à mille temps by Jacques Brel in a chip shop, where someone is carefully putting together a mitraillette, Brussels bars’ signature sandwich – an efficient hook that immediately sets the scene. As we follow a young boy on his bike about to deliver the mitraillette to his friend, we explore the streets of this Brussels neighbourhood, between Molenbeek and the popular centre of Brussels, while tweets and other quotes (their authors ranging from the President of the Flemish Socialist Party to Donald Trump) illustrating the unabashed racism of politicians towards the city’s Moroccan community appear on screen. The tone is set, namely that of a popular cinema with a social purpose, and we sense, despite the seeming levity, the dramatic shadow that hovers over the story.

Indeed, while Tarek dreams of America and Fouad is secretly in love with the pretty girl in his class, a fatal gear starts turning. We naturally get attached to their journey – Tarek, the closed off and hard working big brother, taking care of his mother and his younger brother since the father abandoned them, and Fouad, the teenager who just wants to live life to the fullest but struggles to get over the trauma generated by a more than vigorous search of his home following the March 2016 terrorist attacks, which had been conducted by mistake in the wrong apartment and on the wrong person. The film in fact draws up an unequivocal report of the anguish that inhabits these young men, fearing arbitrary police checks that punctuate their daily lives. This tense climate creates a fertile ground for indoctrination of all kinds, and staying on the right path is a constant struggle. Two thirds into the film, however, the message that seems important to the Ait Hamou brothers takes over from the characters themselves, and one might regret that Fouad, Tarek and Sofia, the latter’s girlfriend, almost become circumstances of the plot, at the service of a certainly legitimate and undoubtedly necessary denunciation that is nevertheless so underlined that it seems to sacrifice the characters that the film had however taken the time to set up.

BXL is produced by Potemkino (Belgium), in co-production with Untold Stories (Belgium). Paradiso will release the film in Belgian theatres on 22 January 2025.

(Translated from French)