Layla M.

Layla M. (2016)

18-year-old Layla, a Dutch girl with Moroccan roots, joins a group of radical Muslims. She encounters a world that nurtures her ideas initally, but finally confronts her with an impossible choice.

Date of release
2016-11-17
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (57)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Drama
Director
Mijke de Jong

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 1

Layla M. is a 2016 Dutch drama film directed by Mijke de Jong. It stars Nora El Koussour as Layla, a young Dutch woman of Moroccan background who rebels against her family and schooling to become an Islamic fundamentalist. As in other films by de Jong, the focus is on a strong-willed woman coming of age. In Layla M., de Jong and her collaborator Jan Eilander wanted to examine the radicalisation of European youngsters. The writers were inspired by a contemporary account. In addition, they were influenced by writing it during the Arab Spring and the trial of Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician known for stands against immigration of Muslims to Europe.

Production

Mijke de Jong previously focused upon strong young female characters in films such as Bluebird, Katia's Sister and Joy. In the early 2010s, the radicalisation of European youngsters into Islamic fundamentalists led to around 3000 people (of which 550 were women) travelling to the Middle East to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

Casting director Rebecca van Unen suggested Nora El Koussour to play the main role. El Koussour had recently graduated from a theatre school in Rotterdam. When she enjoyed singing a nasheed with Ilias Addab, de Jong was happy with the chemistry between the actors and decided to cast her. Layla M. was shot completely on location, in Belgium, Germany, Jordan and the Netherlands, and co-produced by these four countries.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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