Layla M. directed by Mijke de Jong, has been selected as the official entry from The Netherlands for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
The film tells the controversial and searingly honest story of a young female Islamist. Layla, a Dutch-Moroccan teenager, is radicalized by her adopted country’s anti-Muslim measures. She marries a devout young jihadist and together they leave Amsterdam to join an Islamist cell in the Middle East – only to discover that her new community has its own restrictions, prejudices and dangers.
Layla M. starring Nora el Koussour (Laila), Ilias Addab (Abdel), Yasemin Cetinkaya (Oum Osama), Hassan Akkouch (Zine), Husam Khadad (Sheikh Abdullah Al Sabin), Ayisha Siddiqi (Mereyem) Bilal Wahib (Younes) Bobbie Koek (Hana) Mohammed Azaay (Father) and Esma Abouzahra (Mother), world premiered in the Platform competition of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
Layla M. (18) is a young Muslim born in Holland.
Their Moroccan parents had already emigrated to Amsterdam before their birth, and there lay Layla and her brother Younes liberal large.
Layla is an intelligent, funny and stubborn girl with a strong sense of justice. Through the daily confrontation with prejudices against Muslims and Islam, Layla feels increasingly less affable and incomprehensible. Her parents do not try to attract attention and do not help her. Whether on the road, in school, or in politics; the reservations about headscarf-wearing women and men with raucous beards are almost omnipresent in Layla’s world, against the background of various Islamic terror attacks.
Their faith gives Layla a hold and is only strengthened by her displeasure and her longing for affiliation. It is slowly, but surely, joining a group of radical Muslims to create a world in which Islam is tolerated and accepted; and can be lived freely.
Layla is increasingly in conflict with her environment, her family, and even her best friend, Mereyem. Her father, a parade example of an “assimilated alien,” tries to keep his children in check, but Layla refuses to live as he does: as a guest in his own country.
The radical group becomes their new family. Including Abdel, a charismatic believing Muslim, who impressed Layla with his strong speeches.
As Layla’s relationship with her family grows, she feels that your only option is to go away from home. True to her belief, Layla decides to marry Abdel.
After her wedding, Layla goes to the Middle East with Abdel.
Layla meets a world that nourishes their ideas and needs, but ultimately puts them before a seemingly impossible choice.
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