How can our youth become involved with terrorisme and religious extremism? This movie tries to address that question and does wonder in my opinion.

It may be sometimes a bit too didactic for some but I enjoyed that part and actually learned things, even after having watched documentaries on that topic. It show and deconstrut really well how a lost young adult could fall to the sophisticated method used to enrol them. They really becomes prey of recruiter, that are trained, and which actually happened to be djihadist. They could "sell" another ideology the result would be the same.

Of course, they are a few weaknesses and the timing difference was a bit disturbing for me but that didn't prevent me to enjoy this movie, learning but having a nice time as well.

Nota: it is also appreciable to see French movies tackling contemporary social and historical issues, and that with high quality, both cinematically and in research on the topic.

To watch if you want to understand better than the "it's the parents / child fault!".

I just saw this at the Toronto Film Festival, where the director and two stars also talked about the movie.

They apparently started shooting this movie (bad choice of words) a day or two after the Bataclan attack. This gives it added relevance and inspired the actresses in their performances.

Let me preface the review by saying that I have studied Arabic for nine years, have a near-PhD in Islamic Studies, have taught at universities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt for seven years, and for the last two yeas have been immersed in the world of Da'ish and Islamic terrorism. In other words, I know something (!) about the subject.

The director was spot on. Every nuance was absolutely true. There is nothing that could be improved on. If you want a movie to explain why girls (including French girls who are converts) turn into Jihadis, this is THE movie. The director spent months doing research, including talking with girls who had been radicalized, the families, and an Arab de-programmer (Dounia Bouzar) who plays herself in the movie. The research paid off--this will be THE definitive movie on the subject.

The story follows two girls. One has an Arab father and a French mother. She was raised Muslim. The other girl is simply a 15-year-old French girl who is filled with radical ideas. She is groomed by online recruiters, and soon she is an Islamic extremist who leaves for Syria to join her "family." Chilling.

It also follows the parents of the girls, and their guilt and depression. Where did they fail??? And, in fact, they DID fail. Esp. in the case of the French girl, the mother didn't see the signs, because what it led to was unthinkable. But it happened, as it does happen to hundreds of girls.

Apparently the Minister of Education in France has seen the movie twice. Every politician in the West should watch this movie. As well as all high school teachers, parents, and high school students. And if you have any curiosity about the subject at all, this is the best movie out there.

If you spend time on youtube, you will find literally thousands of extremists and Jihadi videos. The opposite point of view is almost completely absent. There are about six pathetic State Dept. videos that are laughable. There are very good (and funny) videos by the evangelical David Woods. But that's it. Mainstream churches--including Catholics--have abandoned the field of battle to the Islamists. There is not even an attempt at apologetics. This makes this movie even more special since it is almost unique.

Even if it weren't acted well, it would be essential watching. But the actresses are brilliant, the story is dramatic and captivating, and leaving the subject material aside, it is a suspenseful and dramatic movie. So on every level it succeeds. This is one of the best movies I have seen in many years (and I see over 75 movies in theaters every year). I can't praise it enough.

My opinion---

With Heaven waiting, we plunge into the pitiless universe of young, influential adolescents who drown in social networks and are projected into a universe full of illusions and manipulation. All these young teenagers who are influenced by all the obscure currents of the net. This movie shows us with all its brutality, how young teenagers fall into the radicalization of extreme religious movements, in order to get rid of everything, their brains are taken hostage without even realizing the Danger that threatens them. What director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar signs her striking movie of truth, an essential movie, terrifying of realism, an uppercut in full face and facing this realism of our present society. One can also say that the interpretation of the two actresses: Noémie Merlant and Naomi Amarger interpreted their role with an impressive truth, that it was even cold in the back and gave this movie all the power to movie, facing these scourges And facing the strategies of recruitment of this youth so easily malleable. A movie showed in the middle school to precisely show all the terror that will follow after, to be trapped by these crazy terrorists without any scruple. A movie that raised my tension so much, I thought, is to say the strength of it. A movie really meditated on the future of a certain fragile youth. But I still end by force and presence in their respective roles of the two young teenagers, they really amazed me.