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The tortured agitations of Tunisian youth are galvanised in this outspoken story about the making of a terrorist. Bahta is 25, young and restless. His one passion is breakdancing but the Tunisian police are always on his b-boys' backs. After hostilities erupt in Iraq, Bahta falls in with a group of fundamentalists who intend on moulding him into a suicide bomber. The film's title takes on a double meaning when director Nouri Bouzid intercuts this story with a pseudo-doco on the ‘making of' the film itself. In this meta-film, the young actor storms off the set arguing that he never agreed to become a terrorist. This is a courageous statement about some hot-button issues illuminated by Lotfi Abdelli's edgy, agonised performance as the vulnerable Bahta.
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D Nouri Bouzid P Abdelaziz Ben Mlouka WS CTV Sales L Arabic, French w/English subtitles TD 35mm/2006/120mins