There is something very special about journalist-turned-filmmaker Dina Amer’s feature directing debut—“You Resemble Me”—that makes you stop and pause, understanding that an exciting voice has just entered the cinematic universe.
The film centers on the challenging and complicated life of Hasna Ait Boulahcen, who was incorrectly identified as Europe’s first female suicide bomber—she wasn’t. The year is 2015 and the location is the November Paris attacks. But how Hasna got herself in such a pickle as to be mislabeled is what sets this story apart through hybrid storytelling—we are sucked into Hasna’s world, meeting her at the age of 9 when she is taking care of her 7-year-old sister, Mariam, without adult supervision or a positive structure.
They are carving their place in a world that has essentially ignored them, dressed in matching pink, floral dresses that Hasna has stolen. Together they explore their environment, unafraid of falling when they run. These two love each other and would fight, even at this early age, for each other. At a glance, this childhood seems happy and stress-free, but nothing is farther from the truth.
As the streets of suburban Paris become their home, inside their modest apartment, their mother sleeps—another French-Moroccan immigrant dealing with the harsh realities of the city. The girls are neglected and abused, suffering at the hands of their mother and hitting the cement walls of racism in the streets.
The images of the girls looking for food, begging for money and struggling to stay warm by the lights of the Eiffel Tower highlight the sorrowful story in a way you can’t look away from. This is a perfect example of neorealistic, verité style, with emotion laced over every image, in every frame.
In short order, Child Protective Services splits the sisters up and tosses them into separate foster homes, a moment that marks Hasna’s evolution.
The family she’s placed with is pleasant enough but they force her to eat pork during a Christmas dinner, disregarding her Muslim beliefs. She fights for her identity, addressing the mirror, stating: “I know who I am” which sounds more like a question than a declaration.
Director Amer pushes time forward, with Hasna (Mouna Soualem) in her mid-20s still a child of the system. She struggles to work as a cashier. She struggles to sell trucks. She struggles to act as a street prostitute. Hasna struggles and falls deeper into a depression that seems to fit her like an old, comforting coat.
When she’s standing in the shadow of the “whore,” trying to be her tricks’ fantasy, she’s played by actress Sabrina Ouazani, but it’s all Hasna. Her faces change from one to another within the same scene and even within the same breath.
We get the point. Hasna is splintered, fragmented and falling into the cracks.
She reconnects with her long-lost cousin (Alexandre Gonin), now involved with an ISIS organization, and he takes her into his world, where Hasna finally feels a sense of community, something she’s craved deeply. It’s this relationship that gives the film the brewing tension as we wonder in what direction Hasna will go.
Here’s what we know. Hasna was not responsible for the bombing that authorities originally told the world she did. We watch her desperately trying to leave the apartment and becoming trapped when the explosion rips through the building.
Then the film zig-zags into a set of interviews with Hasna’s mother, brother and grown-up Mariam, and the naked truth is more jarring.
Director Dina Amer, who is a Muslim Egyptian woman living in the West, has herself struggled to reconcile pieces of her identity. All in all, “You Resemble Me” is one of the best indie films that I’ve seen in years and I understand why Spike Lee serves as one of the executive producers.
