You Resemble Me

In 2015, journalist-turned-filmmaker Dina Amer was part of the news coverage surrounding Hasna Ait Boulahcen, who, at the time, was dubbed Europe’s first female suicide bomber. However, these claims were later proven to be false when footage of the explosion revealed that Hasna was pleading for help. Amer would then spend the following years interviewing Hasna’s family to gain an understanding of who this woman really was for the basis for her debut feature, You Resemble Me. Though the details have been fictionalised, Amer uses Hasna’s story to explore ideas of community, othering and sisterhood as authentically as possible.

When we first meet Hasna, she’s a young girl (Lorenza Grimaudo) doing her best to look after her younger sister, Mariam (Ilonna Grimaudo, Lorenza’s real-life sister). After a heated fight with their mother causes the siblings to flee into the Parisian streets, they’re picked up by the police (not for the first time either) and separated into different foster families. It’s here we skip forward to Hasna as an adult (Mouna Soualem). Her troubled upbringing has made it difficult to find work and she’s still struggling to find where she fits in, with the latter problem causing her to create different versions of herself which Amer incorporates visually into the film by digitally changing Hasna’s face to those of other actors (including Amer’s).

The initial time jump comes as a surprise. The first act of Amer’s film sets viewers up for a coming-of-age-style drama before she pulls the rug away at a crucial point in the young protagonist’s journey. Though necessary in telling Hasna’s story, the time skip is nevertheless jarring, as well as being emblematic of the patchy way the filmmaker has stitched her project together. The second half, especially, feels less focused and more choppy as the script takes on a little more than it can handle.

The film is far more successful when it comes to its thoughtful discussions that tackle difficult subjects, primarily those surrounding radicalisation and belonging. These manifest as earth-shattering monologues from Soualem, which pull no punches when it comes to voicing a community’s anger.

A final gear shift to a documentary style towards the end serves to underscore the reality that this film is founded upon. The specific details may not be completely accurate, but Amer nevertheless unveils hard-hitting truths in her debut feature.

Andrew Murray

You Resemble Me is released in select cinemas on 3^rd February 2023.

Watch the trailer for You Resemble Me here: