La Désintégration (2012)
Directed by Philippe Faucon

Film Review

A film that seeks to probe the origins of terrorism is always going to prove controversial and will inevitably draw criticism in some quarters.  In his latest film, director Philippe Faucon ventures into thorny territory that virtually no other filmmaker has dared to go near and attempts to answer one of the most pertinent questions of our era: what is it that motivates young Muslims living in the west to turn against their countries and lend their support to Islamist terrorism?   Faucon's answer to the question is convincing, well argued, but disappointingly predictable.  He points the finger at the failure of western governments (in particular France's right-leaning presidencies of the past two decades) to effectively integrate immigrant communities within the main stratum of society.  It is racial minorities, deprived of adequate social support and subject to continual racist discrimination (not to mention flagrant police intimidation), that have provided a breeding ground for anti-west sentiment, and a bountiful crop of mal-contented youths who are ripe for indoctrination into the ways of radicalism.

Whilst this argument is hardly original and is a little undermined by the film's slightly demonstrative tone, La Désintégration does go some way to explaining how it is that seemingly intelligent and settled individuals can turn again their home nation and the principles of western democracy to commit acts of unspeakable barbarity in the name of Islam.  Faucon has a reputation as a serious polemicist in France but, in his films, he is first and foremost a student of human nature.  His focus is people, not politics, and it is by drawing his characters as convincingly as possible, skilfully avoiding soap-style caricature, that he is able to argue his case, with great power and eloquence.  In this, he is well-served by a talented pool of (largely inexperienced) actors, one of whom is Rashid Debbouze, the brother of the French star Djamel Debbouze.

As in all of Faucon's films - notably Samia (2000) and La Trahison (2006) - the characters are central to the drama and are complex, almost unfathomable, individuals looking for an identity and a purpose in their lives.  Faucon's distinctive, near-documentary style of filmmaking gives the film a shocking immediacy and razor-sharp acuity, qualities which make it extremely effective in supporting the director's thesis that the upsurge in Islamist terrorism over the past decade is the direct result of the failure of racial integration in the west (another triumph for free market capitalism).

The one criticism that can fairly be levelled against the film is that it does feel a little glib and one-sided in its attempts to unpick a notoriously complex subject.  There is a danger that, having watched this film, the spectator is left with the impression that every disenfranchised young Muslim is a potential mass murderer, which is precisely the kind of paranoid delusion that every neo-conservative and other assorted right-wing, war-mongering fanatic on the planet will have us believe. 

What is missing from the film is a clear and unambiguous assertion that the vast majority of Muslims will have nothing to do with terrorism and that it is only a twisted, psychologically unbalanced minority that are capable of being seduced by the fundamentalist madmen into murdering and maiming in the name of their flawed belief system.   Had the film been a little more balanced, it would not only be less prone to being misunderstood, its conclusion would have been more powerfully rendered, namely that the way to deal with terrorism is not by launching costly wars against Muslim countries but by defusing the hatred and resentment that is festering in our own countries.

Whilst its analysis is a tad simplistic and its central messages open to misinterpretation, La Désintégration is a brave attempt to explain why terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda have such an easy job of finding recruits for their dirty work in mature western democracies.  If nothing else, the film provides a robust starting point for an extensive polemic into the causes of radicalisation, one of the great socio-political issues of our time and one that urgently needs to be resolved, not with bombs but with tolerance and understanding.

Film Synopsis

Ali, Nasser and Hamza are all in their twenties and live on a housing estate in the outskirts of Lille.  They meet Djamel, a man who is ten years their senior and who is, in their eyes, someone to be looked up to.  A habitual manipulator, Djamel soon takes control of the three younger men.  He understands better than anyone their anger and disillusionment and intends to make use of their loathing for a society from which they feel permanently excluded...