On the night of November 13, 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks throughout Paris left 130 people dead and hundreds injured. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which was then in control of large swaths of land in the Middle East, took responsibility for the attacks. A week into the nationwide manhunt for the perpetrators, police had zeroed in and raided an apartment they suspected housed the mastermind behind the attacks. The raid resulted in the death of Hasna Ait Boulahcen, a 26-year-old Frenchwoman of Moroccan descent who friends had described as “living in her own world” until she adopted strict Islamic dress and expressed desires to become a Jihadi in the months leading up to the attacks.
Boulahcen was falsely accused of being Europe’s first-ever suicide bomber for a while until an autopsy report in 2016 showed she died of asphyxiation after another suspect detonated their vest. Boulahcen’s upbringing will be the subject of “You Resemble Me,” the directorial debut of award-winning journalist Dina Amer.
According to an official synopsis, “You Remember Me” will place “cultural and intergenerational trauma” at the fore of its story, following the separation of Hasna and her sister, and the former’s struggles to form an identity, culminating “in a choice that shocks the world.” Among the film’s producers are luminaries such as Spike Lee, Spike Jonze, and Riz Ahmed.
After premiering at the Venice International Film Festival, “You Resemble Me” will open in New York on November 4 and Los Angeles on November 11, with a national rollout to follow.