You Resemble Me
The horrific events of November 2015 in Paris trigger a remarkable directorial debut and a profound contemplation of identity.
This film marks the directorial debut of the former journalist Dina Amer who also wrote it with Omar Mullick. Her commitment to it could not go deeper because her change of career was triggered by the very events which are central to the film. Its aim is to portray the life of Hasna Ait Boulahcen without resorting to easy judgments. Hasna was a Muslim whose parents were both Moroccan, but she herself grew up in France. When she died in an explosion in 2015 aged twenty-six, the papers described her as Europe's first female suicide bomber and Amer wrote of her in those terms. However, it then emerged that this was not the case. Hasna had called for help just before her cousin, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind behind the November 2015 attacks in Paris by Islamic State, caused the explosion which killed them both. Although Hasna had indeed been sucked into linking up with her cousin who had been hoping to lure her out to Syria, Amer felt guilty for being one of those reporters who had in good faith published the false details about her. It is as an act of contrition that she now brings us this film which asks us to take a more considered view of Hasna and of what led her to being susceptible to being won over when her cousin sought to radicalise her.
Given this background and the change of direction in Amer’s own life, you might well feel that it would be lucky were You Resemble Me to prove her to be a reasonably competent filmmaker. That makes it all the more surprising that the film reveals her to be so strikingly original in her new role. This is most apparent in the first quarter of it when she gives us a portrait of the young Hasna (Lorenzo Grimaudo) and concentrates on the close bond between her and her younger sister, Mariam (Ilonna Grimaudo). They live with their mother (Sana Sri), a brother (Djino Grimaudo) and a new baby, but the mother is difficult and fails to look after her daughters who are often left to roam the streets. Understandably, the authorities decide to put the two girls in foster homes, an act which will separate them at a time when their closeness has been central to both our lives. These true facts make for a dramatic narrative, but in filming it Dina Amer opts for an unusually free style. She is less concerned with smooth storytelling than in capturing the extent to which the girls function as a pair. It's a priority that leads her to show a variety of scenes quickly edited together, scenes which involve us directly with the characters whose bond is rendered all the more potently because the admirable child players are themselves sisters.
Amer’s film tends to retain this style as it moves forward, albeit with just occasional neatly placed flashbacks, to show Hasna’s life after she had run away from her foster home to lead her own life in Paris. Two specific issues emerge as the film proceeds. The first is the situation that Hasna finds herself in due to being both Arabic and French and without a distinct sense of where she belongs. This is linked to the notion that several personalities co-exist within her, just as there are various chance possibilities capable of shaping her life (“I can change who I am" she declares at one point). There is some involvement with prostitution and drugs at this stage, but also a certain sense of guilt that she had failed to keep Mariam with her. We are made aware too of experiences which inhibit her progress (as when she seeks to join the army due to her desire to help people but is turned down). All of this leads into the other issue, that of how the difficulties in Hasna’s life make her vulnerable to her cousin’s propaganda about the virtues of joining Isis.
In covering these developments the film is certainly insightful and Amer has a natural feel for the wide screen format, but there are times when the impressionistic style which is so perfectly suited to the childhood scenes proves less apt and too abrupt when the story needs to flow more. The idea that people have more than one clear-cut personality leads to Hasna in her twenties being represented by three separate players including Amer herself and, while this is not made a key aspect, it does seem an unnecessary piece of stylisation in this context. The final scene involving Hasna and her cousin is intent on distinguishing between their attitudes to terrorist acts but this feels a bit forced. Consequently, the film’s opening segment is the best, but this is nevertheless a very effective work which achieves its overall aim of refuting the notion that people can be put into neat categories when it comes to judging them. Human beings are more complex than that, a fact reflected in the resonance inherent in the film’s title. Apparently, Hasna’s family approved of Amer making this film because Hasna’s mother saw something of Hasna in Dina Amer. The title is also one that points to what the film does best of all, its portrait of the two little girls finding what is almost a twinship. Yet in the end the phrase 'You resemble me’ is most relevant as an indication that Amer wants to suggest that, given the complexity in every human character and the power of chance and circumstance to shape it, all of us bear some resemblance to Hasna and that we should not forget that when forming any judgment of her.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Lorenza Grimaudo, Ilonna Grimaudo, Mouna Soualem, Sabrina Ouazani, Dina Amer, Alexandre Gonin, Nassima Benichou, Grégoire Colin, Sana Sri, Agnès de Tyssandier, Djino Grimaudo, Zinedine Soualem.
Dir Dina Amer, Pro Dina Amer, Karim Amer and Elizabeth Woodward, Ex Pro Spike Lee, Spike Jonze, Riz Ahmed and Alma Har'el, Screenplay Dina Amer and Omar Mullick Ph Omar Mullick, Pro Des Astrid Tonnellier, Ed Keiko Deguchi and Jake Roberts, Music Danny Bensi, Chase Deno and Saunder Jurriaans, Costumes Nessrine Boukmiche.
The Othrs/Willa Productions/Artemis Rising Foundation/D’Artagnan/RYOT Films-Modern Films.
89 mins. France/USA/Egypt. 2021. US Rel: 4 November 2022. UK Rel: 3 February 2023. Cert. 15.
