This is the fifth movie from directors Adil & Bilall. Unfortunately they got their Batgirl movie cancelled. This is their most personal movie to date. It's clear they have done their utmost best to give a nice look into the world of IS-fighters, fighting a grime, heavy battle in Syria against Assad. The movie is raw, realistic, has some great fighting seens but the acting performances of the cast are really great. It's not a typical action movie, but an intense graphic view on the lives of IS-fighters from Belgium. Some very emotional scenes are cast as musical scenes with great music. Go and check out for yourselves.
7 Reviews
Masterpiece!
Victor-delanghe3 October 2022
For the first time on screen we actually have a clear, unfiltered, raw and powerful look behind the still ongoing war in Syria that has started in 2014. It's without a doubt the best movie on ISIS.
The movie brings every dark aspect of the war with a insane well written story of a young man traveling to Syria helping the local fractions to fight Assads troops but eventually ending up fighting for ISIS against his will.
The incredible soundtrack brings the movie to another level and adds another deep layer to this already rich movie.
The performance of the cast, especially the lead actor Aboubakr Bensaihi, was top notch.
They've transcended themselves to show us the real life mechanism of ISIS layer by layer and it's ripping effect on migrant society in Europe in a baffling realistic way no viewer would be left untouched by their performance on screen.
Through the fighting sequences, the feeling and heavyweight of these scenes were amplified to a extent that the viewer was sucked in the scene in a way that only grand directors are able to do. It really reminds me of Michal Mann or Hideo Kojima.
It's without a doubt one of the most intriguing movies of the year and for me certainly worth a second view.
The movie brings every dark aspect of the war with a insane well written story of a young man traveling to Syria helping the local fractions to fight Assads troops but eventually ending up fighting for ISIS against his will.
The incredible soundtrack brings the movie to another level and adds another deep layer to this already rich movie.
The performance of the cast, especially the lead actor Aboubakr Bensaihi, was top notch.
They've transcended themselves to show us the real life mechanism of ISIS layer by layer and it's ripping effect on migrant society in Europe in a baffling realistic way no viewer would be left untouched by their performance on screen.
Through the fighting sequences, the feeling and heavyweight of these scenes were amplified to a extent that the viewer was sucked in the scene in a way that only grand directors are able to do. It really reminds me of Michal Mann or Hideo Kojima.
It's without a doubt one of the most intriguing movies of the year and for me certainly worth a second view.
Extraordinary!
markvanwasbeek6 October 2022
This is by far one of the best movies to hit the theaters this year! I went in with only a basic knowledge of the premise, and I was truly impressed afterwards. The cinematography is superb. The war scenes in Syria really grab you by the throat and are visually stunning! The three main characters nail their part. Special shout out to Aboubakr Bensaihi for portraying such a difficult role with so much human heart. The soundtrack really adds to the atmosphere too. The only thing I disliked were the 'musical' moments, however there were done correctly in the setting and tone, but the epilogue kind of took away the shine of the climax.. I am also affraid this will pass under many people's radar, which is a shame because production value wise this looks straight up Hollywood, but the story will not appeal to mainstream US moviegoers. IF you read this review because you are in doubt, go and watch this NOW. It's nice to see movies from a different perspective as usual. You will not be disappointed! 9/10 highly recommended.
Mindblowing
superfunkstar2 November 2022
I watched it with a friend in theaters expecting a low budget indie movie but this movie is something else entirely.
I should have known that these directors never deliver a standard movie, with just a good story and great acting. If you have seen their previous work, you know what I mean. They take risks in terms of mixing genres that would not match on paper, working with unexperienced actors and do really cool stuff with the cameras, sound and editing. This time, they delivered their best work so far.
Rebel is a movie like I have never seen before. Sure there are other movies about war in the middle east or about terrorism but this one changed my perspective and that's something.
The story is told from multiple perspectives (2 brothers and their mother) which keeps it interesting throughout it's runtime. It is a high paced movie that delivers thanks to it authenticity: the actors speak in their native language (english is rare), explosions and scenes are the real thing and the story is raw and unforgiving. This is what you get when you give a talented crew a big budget and trust them that they deliver something unique and personal. I guess the name of the movie also applies to them.
Rebel is a must-see and the best movie I have seen this year.
I should have known that these directors never deliver a standard movie, with just a good story and great acting. If you have seen their previous work, you know what I mean. They take risks in terms of mixing genres that would not match on paper, working with unexperienced actors and do really cool stuff with the cameras, sound and editing. This time, they delivered their best work so far.
Rebel is a movie like I have never seen before. Sure there are other movies about war in the middle east or about terrorism but this one changed my perspective and that's something.
The story is told from multiple perspectives (2 brothers and their mother) which keeps it interesting throughout it's runtime. It is a high paced movie that delivers thanks to it authenticity: the actors speak in their native language (english is rare), explosions and scenes are the real thing and the story is raw and unforgiving. This is what you get when you give a talented crew a big budget and trust them that they deliver something unique and personal. I guess the name of the movie also applies to them.
Rebel is a must-see and the best movie I have seen this year.
... with(out) a cause
kosmasp8 June 2023
No pun intended as always. The movie is quite serious, so forgive me for still finding something (some call them dad jokes, not me though) to smile about. And when I say serious, some might even say dead serious. The movie that tackles Syria and the war within, has many more things to say! About family, about how people are drawn in to serve/work with or rather for ... people that pretend to care for you and your struggles ... but of course they don't really.
What we get is a deep look into how people are brainwashed, but once inside get treated horrible ... to a degree where they are not able to get out. The hurt and pain one has gets exploited to the core (again no pun intended).
I know that quite a few had this at their top of their 2022 movie list. I only was able to watch it the other day .. and I can see why they liked it so much. But while this stays mostly on the serious side, it also is able to pull off sing and dance numbers. Which is quite the incredible feat to pull off ... if you don't mind that, it is very well done.
The main characters and their family connection is one thing - being annoyed or rather distressed by the lack of attention or help by the western world can backfire ... or as already said exploited by people who know how ... the will to survive might make you do things you don't want to. Including how you would treat others ... and if you show weakness (being kind would be one of the things considered that way) ... well there is no place for you ... only to be used for other purposes ... very ill intended ones ... family is big .. family is strong ... but family also makes you vulnerable to certain things ... you'll know what ... there quite a few booms ... none bigger than the one towards the end ...
What we get is a deep look into how people are brainwashed, but once inside get treated horrible ... to a degree where they are not able to get out. The hurt and pain one has gets exploited to the core (again no pun intended).
I know that quite a few had this at their top of their 2022 movie list. I only was able to watch it the other day .. and I can see why they liked it so much. But while this stays mostly on the serious side, it also is able to pull off sing and dance numbers. Which is quite the incredible feat to pull off ... if you don't mind that, it is very well done.
The main characters and their family connection is one thing - being annoyed or rather distressed by the lack of attention or help by the western world can backfire ... or as already said exploited by people who know how ... the will to survive might make you do things you don't want to. Including how you would treat others ... and if you show weakness (being kind would be one of the things considered that way) ... well there is no place for you ... only to be used for other purposes ... very ill intended ones ... family is big .. family is strong ... but family also makes you vulnerable to certain things ... you'll know what ... there quite a few booms ... none bigger than the one towards the end ...
Another masterpiece in directing without direction by Adil & Bilal...
bramraters24 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Let's get the good things out of the way first: the cinematography is brilliant. You can tell the young directors have definitely improved in their technical abilities and are putting their budget to good use. We as a viewer get the feeling we're looking at a real Hollywood film instead of a local production, something very little Belgian directors have succeeded in.
However, these whistles and bells alone fail to make this a captivating film. The main issue is that it's missing direction. It's too much at once and nothing is really explored in depth or fleshed out well. The main problem for me here is that it fails establish any connection between the viewer and the characters, which makes it a chore to finish a movie you're not engaged in.
The plot of the movie revolves around a family of three: A Belgian-Moroccan mother and her two sons. The oldest of which, Kamal, travels to Syria to help the local populace and oppose the Assad-regime. His motivation to do so is shotty at best: he was a popular local figure and artist in Brussels and everything seemed to be going his way, which makes the decision to go to Syria after a near-arrest by the police and exposure to one news emmision on Syria quite sudden and unconvincing. His switch from a selfish figure to someone who risks everything for others is not explored well and this causes an immediate disconnect with the main character, who for the rest of the movie just acts as an empty vessel to show how bad ISIS is (as if the viewer was not aware this well-covered and revered extremist organisation was bad!).
The second storyline revolves around Kamal's 12 year old brother, who's slowly brainwashed by local influential figures and ends up joining the ISIS youth department. This plot works better than Kamal's one, since there's more build up and we get a glimpse on how the ISIS recruitment system works and more specifically we see how the system shows little interest in these "lost causes" and victim-blames the mother. However, the kid (played by director Adil's younger brother) is not really convincing in carrying this heavy storyline and the plot drags on for wayyyyyy too long too. Instead of ending on a gutwrenching cliffhanger where we see him leaving for Syria, we have to sit through his military training and see him eventually kill his older brother. This kills all the suspense and is only included to show how bad ISIS really is (yeah we know, everyone knows this!).
The final plotline tells the story of a mother struggling with the radicalisation of her youngest son. The mother, played by Lubna Azabal, is one of the few convincing characters in this movie. She perfectly captures the helplessness of a mother who's losing her children and can barely do anything about it. She's victim-blamed by her surroundings and even the public services. Sadly, this plotline drags on well after it's expiration date, the viewer is forced to watch the mother travel to Syria and find her youngest son. This makes for a tedious and anticlimactic end of the movie, that had lots of people at the theater sighing and looking at their watches. As mentioned before: ending the story at the point where the young son abandons his desperate mother for Syria, would have left a much stronger impression...
Some final annoyances:
A very disappointing and tedious watch by Adil & Bilal, who really have to stick to simple action flicks and stay away from more serious topics...
However, these whistles and bells alone fail to make this a captivating film. The main issue is that it's missing direction. It's too much at once and nothing is really explored in depth or fleshed out well. The main problem for me here is that it fails establish any connection between the viewer and the characters, which makes it a chore to finish a movie you're not engaged in.
The plot of the movie revolves around a family of three: A Belgian-Moroccan mother and her two sons. The oldest of which, Kamal, travels to Syria to help the local populace and oppose the Assad-regime. His motivation to do so is shotty at best: he was a popular local figure and artist in Brussels and everything seemed to be going his way, which makes the decision to go to Syria after a near-arrest by the police and exposure to one news emmision on Syria quite sudden and unconvincing. His switch from a selfish figure to someone who risks everything for others is not explored well and this causes an immediate disconnect with the main character, who for the rest of the movie just acts as an empty vessel to show how bad ISIS is (as if the viewer was not aware this well-covered and revered extremist organisation was bad!).
The second storyline revolves around Kamal's 12 year old brother, who's slowly brainwashed by local influential figures and ends up joining the ISIS youth department. This plot works better than Kamal's one, since there's more build up and we get a glimpse on how the ISIS recruitment system works and more specifically we see how the system shows little interest in these "lost causes" and victim-blames the mother. However, the kid (played by director Adil's younger brother) is not really convincing in carrying this heavy storyline and the plot drags on for wayyyyyy too long too. Instead of ending on a gutwrenching cliffhanger where we see him leaving for Syria, we have to sit through his military training and see him eventually kill his older brother. This kills all the suspense and is only included to show how bad ISIS really is (yeah we know, everyone knows this!).
The final plotline tells the story of a mother struggling with the radicalisation of her youngest son. The mother, played by Lubna Azabal, is one of the few convincing characters in this movie. She perfectly captures the helplessness of a mother who's losing her children and can barely do anything about it. She's victim-blamed by her surroundings and even the public services. Sadly, this plotline drags on well after it's expiration date, the viewer is forced to watch the mother travel to Syria and find her youngest son. This makes for a tedious and anticlimactic end of the movie, that had lots of people at the theater sighing and looking at their watches. As mentioned before: ending the story at the point where the young son abandons his desperate mother for Syria, would have left a much stronger impression...
Some final annoyances:
- The constant switching between languages! I see what they were going for here: illustrating the multicultural nature of ISIS and European muslims in general. However, when you have 2 Belgian Moroccans talking to each other, it doesn't make sense that they'd switch between French, Arab and Dutch 3 times in one sentence. A conversation between Kamal and his Belgian ISIS friend somehow contains more language switches than actual words spoken!
- The musical numbers: I was suprised to see the musical aspect of this film but I didn't really mind them. What I did dislike about them, was that they clearly were supposed to carry over some important motivations or strong feelings but they failed terribly to do so. For example, Kamal's decision to move to Syria is supposed to be explained in the movie's first song but this song fails misserably in doing a convincing job, the only message the viewer could take away from it was that Kamal didn't like what he saw on the news, even though the Syrian war or his feelings about it had never been brought up before.
- My biggest annoyance is the fact that this movie failed to bring any new light to the conflict: everyone in Europe know ISIS is bad, their brutal crimes have been shared on the internet & news for the last 12 years! It would have been satisfying to see the other side and get a clear view on the motivations that lead our European youth to participate in the war or to radicalize. Motivations we as a viewer can understand and connect to! In this film, we saw a Belgian criminal, joining a criminal organization and although we're supposed to think he's good at heart and circumstances drove him this far, it rather feels that Kamal is quite dumb and a terrible decision maker. That's why this film fails to clear any stigma about the Islam or the radicalised youth, which is what it was supposed to be going for.
A very disappointing and tedious watch by Adil & Bilal, who really have to stick to simple action flicks and stay away from more serious topics...
Rebel with a Ka(mal)Wasaki
amirkhaw9 February 2024
Hollywood really can't get over itself enough to produce anything that doesn't resemble flag-waiving American propaganda when it comes to the conflict of terror, especially when it concerns Middle Easterners. Which is why I was hopeful that Rebel would offer something different.
Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, they previously had the hard task of making Bad Boys relevant again (and succeeding). And yet, here their talent is even more obvious when it's free from the framework of a Hollywood blockbuster. The tone is deadly serious, it's gritty and harrowing, the cinematography will have you believe you're watching a big budget movie. Yet there are at least three musical and dance numbers seamless integrated within the story, which do not even seem out of place. I am not sure how they did that either, but it worked for me.
Furthermore, there are many languages spoken in the movie, English being in the minority. This may admittedly jar a lot of moviegoers, yet I found it authentic.
Overall, Rebel is epic from start to finish. Very few movies have recently moved me like this one. This is one of the strongest movies to be released in 2022.
Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, they previously had the hard task of making Bad Boys relevant again (and succeeding). And yet, here their talent is even more obvious when it's free from the framework of a Hollywood blockbuster. The tone is deadly serious, it's gritty and harrowing, the cinematography will have you believe you're watching a big budget movie. Yet there are at least three musical and dance numbers seamless integrated within the story, which do not even seem out of place. I am not sure how they did that either, but it worked for me.
Furthermore, there are many languages spoken in the movie, English being in the minority. This may admittedly jar a lot of moviegoers, yet I found it authentic.
Overall, Rebel is epic from start to finish. Very few movies have recently moved me like this one. This is one of the strongest movies to be released in 2022.
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