Dina Amer’s unforgettable “You Resemble Me” opens with the spirted young Hasan (Lorenza Grimaudo, terrific and natural) giving her younger sister Miriam (played by Lorenza’s real life sister, Ilonna Grimaudo) a brightly colored sundress for her birthday. The dress is identical to one that Hasan is wearing and, since she has to remove the antitheft device, leaving a hole, it’s likely stolen.
Without a cent and wearing flip flops with their dresses, the two young girls happily traipse around Paris, riding the subway and playfully taunting one another about looking alike. As night falls and it grows cold, they return to their apartment outside Paris and to their abusive mother who threatens to sell Miriam’s dress, claiming it will fetch good money in their native Morocco. Hasan steps in to protect Miriam, setting off her mother’s rage and triggering a traumatic chain of events.
Soon, the sisters are forced apart and placed in separate foster homes. The grief and guilt over losing her sister will forever plague Hasan. She internalizes her mother’s angry accusation that the devastating loss is somehow the child’s fault.
French-Arab journalist-turned-filmmaker Amer’s debut feature is a gripping modern coming of age tale. Amer fashions a fictional story based on the very real Hasna Aït Boulahcen who was condemned in the press as a terrorist when she was killed in the aftermath of Paris’s 2015 Bataclan attacks. Amer conducted hour of interviews with Hasan’s family and friends. “You Resemble Me” is the filmmaker’s reimagining of Hasan’s story which is the story of trauma and how we can never know how a person's past shapes them. The film doesn’t defend or even explain: it just shows how trauma, neglect, poverty, racism and the limited opportunities resulting from all those factors might cause a vulnerable young person to disassociate and seek family and purpose among jihadists.
After she runs away from her foster family, the film fast forwards to the older Hasna (now played by Mouna Soualem) who quells her pain with drink, drugs, dance clubs and being a self-described “whore.” She attempts to lead a different, battling homelessness by crashing with a friend and working menial jobs. As she tries to figure out who she is, Hasna continually comes up against subtle and overt anti-Arab racism in France, such as when she meets with a recruiter for the French army. He dismisses her because she doesn’t have a diploma while an increasingly frustrated Hasan tries to explain how she protected her little sister against her mother, against the world.
“You Resemble Me” includes actual footage of the 2015 attack and its aftermath as Hasna Aït Boulahcen is vilified as a terrorist in the press, among the public and her own family. The film is an artful mix of documentary and moving backstory that reclaims Hasna's humanity as it reveals how trauma can destroy a young soul and spirit.
