Review of You Resemble Me (2022) by Cdem — 11 Nov 2022

You Resemble Me is a mesmerizing film and an intimate look at a young woman who wants to belong and be loved. The main character is complex, funny, lonely, lost and, in many ways, relatable.

Although the story may remind some of Taxi Driver, the differences are clear. This film is based on the true story of Hasna Ait Boulahcen who was linked to the Paris attacks of 2015, and falsely accused in the news of being a suicide bomber after she was killed in an explosion at the age of 26. It’s unknown if she was truly aware of her cousin’s criminal activities and the dangerous company that she kept in the last few days of her life. In reality, Hasna never killed anyone, and was recorded saying that she rejected violence and that she wanted to provide humanitarian help to ordinary people suffering in Syria and Palestine. Director Dina Amer, who has extensive experience as a journalist, was granted unique access to family members and neighbors to tell this story. She collected 360 hours of interviews to piece together a more complete picture of Hasna’s life. The film shows Hasna on a constant quest for human connection. She is repeatedly abused, abandoned, disrespected, neglected and attacked at all stages of her life in France. Dina Amer finds cinematic ways to show Hasna’s dissociation, code switching and identity crisis. I’m thinking especially of the moment in her childhood when her beautiful brown eyes morph into blue to appear more acceptable to her foster parents. It portrays heartbreaking longing to be accepted. Personally, I related to Hasna as a woman, as a survivor of domestic abuse and as a resident alien in the US. It becomes more difficult to relate when considering the context, the deaths and magnitude of the trauma associated with these attacks. Still, Dina Amer makes a strong case that a person can be caught in the crossfire.