Young Ahmed (15)

Revolving around a 13-year-old Belgian Muslim (Idir Ben Addi ) newly radicalised by a local imam (Othmane Moumen), the latest film from Jean-pierre and Luc Dardenne offers a devastating account not just of the ease with which impressionable minds can be corrupted by extremist thought, but an empathic portrait of the challenge deprogramming such hatred entails. With typical brilliance and brevity, the Dardennes tease out the source of Ahmed’s rage in an absent father, a martyred cousin and the echochamber of the internet. But they don’t make excuses for him and one of the strengths of the film is way it forces us to try and reconcile how unapologetically despicable his actions and attitudes are with how young he is.

Curzon