“You Resemble Me”: A Provocative and Disturbing Debut Film by Dina Amer
Dina Amer, a former Vice News journalist, makes her feature film debut with “You Resemble Me”, a powerful and focused movie that offers a plausible and sympathetic backstory to a real-life case. With expert care and assurance, Amer aligns fictionalized mise-en-scène, news footage, and interviews to create a captivating story.
The movie is based on the case of Hasna Aït Boulahcen, who was radicalized by Islamic State and was killed during the raid on a Paris apartment building in 2015, after the terrorist attacks that took place in various locations including the Bataclan theater. Excited media reporters claimed that Aït Boulahcen was Europe’s first female suicide bomber, causing much prurient commentary about her troubled life as a party girl. However, forensic evidence showed that the bomber was actually an unidentified man.
Lorenza Grimaudo plays the young Hasna, who is inseparably close to her younger sister Mariam, played by Ilonna Grimaudo. After truanting and running away with Mariam, they are fostered and eventually split up into different families, causing a terrible psychic wound that may have contributed to Hasna’s final disaster. As an adult, played by Mouna Soualem, she is angry, depressed, abused, and drawn into drug addiction before being electrified by her cousin’s charismatic online presence as a jihadi.
Amer creates a disquieting effect by deepfake-morphing Hasna’s face into a different face, suggesting her alternative sense of self or selves, perhaps stemming from the spiritual amputation of her sister’s presence. This powerful touch gives “You Resemble Me” the bite-strength of a horror film, making it a strong and heartfelt film that is not to be missed.
Mixed Media Magazine 