Young Ahmed

The simple story of a child consumed by radical religious fervour. 12-yearold Ahmed is an unassuming schoolboy who spends most of his time diligently assisting the local imam with prayers and ceremonies. No one would ever guess that he was planning to murder a teacher. Ahmed has no speck of doubt about the righteousness of the deed, oblivious to his own fanaticism, whose exact cause is unclear. Was it his father’s long absence? Or the boy’s isolation from the world around him? In their 11th fiction film, the Belgian Dardenne brothers tell deeply the human story of a boy with a minimalist narrative structure but an extraordinary character arc, following every step of the young protagonist’s psychological progression. (Art Film Fest)