Young Ahmed

Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed) is a 2019 Belgian drama film directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The film revolves around a young Muslim boy from Belgium who plots to murder his teacher in the name of his religion. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes the Dardenne brothers won the award for Best Director.

Plot
Ahmed, a 13-year-old, plots to kill his teacher, whom he believes to be an apostate after being radicalised by a local imam. Ahmed is arrested and sent to juvenile detention, where he claims to be a reformed character.

Cast

 * Idir Ben Addi as Ahmed
 * Olivier Bonnaud as Caseworker
 * Myriem Akheddiou as Inès
 * Victoria Bluck as Louise
 * Claire Bodson as Mother
 * Othmane Moumen as Imam Youssouf
 * Amine Hamidou as Rachid
 * Yassine Tarsimi as Abdel
 * Frank Onana as Fouad
 * Laurent Caron as Mathieu
 * Annette Closset as Sandrine
 * Marc Zinga as Juge
 * Ben Hamidou as Amine
 * Monia Douieb as Amina

Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on  reviews, with an average rating of. The site's critical consensus reads, "Young Ahmed doesn't represent the Dardennes brothers' most developed work, but solid acting and a socially conscious story help compensate for its flaws." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".