11/20
Narrative
Brussels teacher Amal encourages students' passion for reading and freedom of expression, despite the risks. Her courageous approach leaves a mark on students and families. This was seen at the 2023 film festival in Ghent (Belgium). To begin, I must admit that I started off on the wrong foot, at least for the first half of the run. I felt a little disconnected from the story: do they want to tell us something? I really regret that religious fanaticism and fundamentalism have a huge influence on many people, that they do everything they can to threaten or even eliminate those who do not believe. My initial problem with the story in question was that I mistakenly thought that the filmmakers were trying to inform us that there are people who put the Quran and Sharia above national laws, and therefore ignore what we consider normal (we call it «civilized»). tolerant of other beliefs. I am now corrected, because I know that they were not preaching. Moreover, it is now positive. First of all, I was attracted by the believable cast and even the believable circumstances of the school where a significant part of the story takes place. Also the parents and the neighborhood, which could be in any large city in any country. I was really drawn to the events because of some unexpected turns of events that kept the story alive and kept me interested in the process. Second, I was also drawn to the growing dilemmas of the teachers and school principals, which became more and more complicated each time. meeting. The essential issues become apparent and move the story forward, unfortunately, without an obvious solution. Those meetings really involved me in what happened, and also showed how difficult it is to decide on a balanced approach to the issues on the agenda. Third, we also see the great influence of social media. It is not only direct threats that are important here. Also, the fact that everyone is talking about you without knowing the real facts, but opinions are still formed that spread like wildfire. It is easy to like a post, even if you do not completely agree with it, you can quickly, without thinking about anything. It’s also very easy to write negative text, which is amplified by the anonymity of unverified accounts. All of this adds up to an irrepressible media storm. Before the internet, we had a churchyard, a butcher’s shop, and a pub to exchange gossip, no, we have much faster means, with greater reach and speed. But there is no happy ending, given the circumstances, perhaps an impossible mission. It leaves us with no solution, but is there? Overall, this is not a documentary showing that fundamentalists are becoming a growing problem, as I’m sure the filmmakers now know we already knew. This is a real-world story in and around a real school, with real teachers and real students with families at home who are also involved. We see believable characters in relevant roles, even unsympathetic roles.
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