You Resemble Me

A powerful drama about an Arab girl growing up in France who fails alienated and disconnected from both cultures.

“You Resemble Me” is an audacious directing debut by Dina Amer, who also co-wrote the script with Omar Mullick. It’s not an autobiographical film, but Amer shares with her protagonist the truth of being Egyptian Muslims raised in France who felt alienated and ostracized from both cultures.

The movie is split into two distinct parts that don’t necessarily synch up all that well, but each have an energy and point of view that’s gripping in their own distinct way.

The first section of the film follows Hasna, a girl of about 12 played magnificently by Lorenza Grimaudo, as she runs away with her younger sister, Mariam (Ilonna Grimaudo). When their mother is not sleeping the days away, presumably under the effect of substances, she is abusive and spiteful.

The way Amer depicts this portion is absolutely hypnotic, shot cinema verite-style so it feels like we’re just another child following the girls around. They wear identical flowered pink dresses, Hasna having bought a matching one for Mariam on her birthday, which is spoiled when the mother tries to confiscate all her meager presents (bought by the siblings) to sell for money.

The sisters often talk about how much they look like each other, and it’s clear that Hasna is trying to mold Mariam into a miniature version of her — strong-willed and rebellious, but also with a streak of insecurity. Eventually events lead to them being split up by the authorities, which has a devastating effect on Hasna.

The movie then switches to several years later with Hasna as a young woman, now played by Mouna Soualem. She has become an itinerant worker who parties hard, including accepting drugs for sex. She still wears the same Western hat they picked up during her childhood wanderings, and she likes to emulate six-shooters with her hands — especially to anyone that bothers her. This lends her the nickname Cowgirl.

Because Hasna feels so fractured by competing cultural influences and identities, she does not fully belong to herself. She hides this behind bravado and self-affirmation. “I can change who I am to get love… it’s my superpower,” she says.

To underscore this, Hasna is sometimes played for short stretches by two other women (Sabrina Ouazani and Amer herself) when she needs to escape into other roles, such as when she’s experiencing abuse. I’ve seen this sort of thing done before, and it is the rare time when it actually enhanced the storytelling rather than seeming like a cinematic gimmick.

In the last act, Hasna reacquaints herself with a cousin, Hamid (Alexandre Gonin), who she sees on TV on a report about his recruiting for ISIS via social media. To her warped thinking, he has become a successful celebrity, someone to admire and emulate. She gets in touch via chat messaging and eventually begins to fall under his spell.

Amer was a journalist who reported on terrorist attacks in France in the last decade, and continued that journey by conducting hundreds of hours of interviews with Arab families involved in actual events. Those formed the basis of the screenplay for “You Resemble Me.”

Most attention to this movie will likely focus on the adult portion as it’s a probing look at how broken people can become swayed by extremist ideologies. It’s notable that Hamid at first talks to Hasna only about living in paradise and becoming a whole person through faith. Self-affirmation is the real bait. It’s only at the very end that the true, deadly intention becomes clear.

I don’t mind saying I preferred the earlier part of the movie with Hasna and Mariam as girls. It’s some of the most compelling filmmaking I’ve seen this year — immediate, visceral and authentic. Though I appreciated the second portion, I didn’t want the first to end.

Even if it sometimes feels like two different movies jammed incongruently together, “You Resemble Me” heralds the arrival of an important new filmmaking voice.

“You Resemble Me” is in limited theatrical release. Stay tuned for info on streaming/demand options.