Film

Fatwa

Name: Fatwa
Genre: Drama
Released: 2018
Cast: Ahmed Hafiane, Ghalia Ben Ali, Sârra Hanachi, Jamel Madani, Mohamed Maghraoui

Social drama
Very dark

A Tunisian father returns home to bury his son, who died under murky circumstances that may involve radicalization. Director Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud—himself from Tunisia, now in Belgium—examines grief, faith, and the distance between parents and children with unflinching clarity. Quietly devastating, shot through with moral complexity rather than easy answers. For anyone willing to sit with difficult questions.

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A Prophet2009

Laurent Cantet's masterpiece about identity, corruption, and survival inside a French prison. Builds with the same inexorable momentum as Fatwa, asking what shapes a person when the world closes in.

But Long and deliberately paced. It demands patience and offers no catharsis, only cold clarity.

The Son2022

Florian Zeller's film about a father trying to understand his estranged teenage son. Explores the specific helplessness of parenthood with devastating subtlety and formally inventive direction.

But Deliberately disorienting narrative structure. Some find the style gets in the way of the emotion.

It's Only the End of the World2016

Xavier Dolan examines a family in freefall when a dying son comes home. Raw, claustrophobic, and unflinching about how people hurt each other without meaning to.

But Intensely theatrical and emotionally exhausting. The heightened register isn't for everyone.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Fatwa

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Toni Erdmann2016

Both films argue that love between parent and child survives not through understanding, but through the stubborn refusal to stop trying, even when understanding is impossible.

Maren Ade's three-hour film about a father and estranged daughter reconnecting in Bucharest. Uses comedy as a tool for intimacy—laughter becomes the only language they share. Structurally it mirrors Fatwa's central mystery: what does a parent really know about their child?

But Long, slow, and often awkward. The humour is uncomfortable rather than cathartic.

Incendies2010

Denis Villeneuve's film about a mother's secret past and its devastating legacy for her children. Unfolds gradually, revealing how history and identity collide across generations.

But Heavy subject matter involving war crimes and family trauma. The twist ending divides viewers on whether it earns its power.

The Class2008

Laurent Cantet's cinema-vérité drama set in a Parisian classroom, where culture, identity, and belonging clash daily. Observational and urgent without being preachy.

But Very long, largely improvised, and deliberately anti-dramatic. Requires active attention throughout.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring2003

Kim Ki-duk's meditative film about monks and violence in a floating monastery. Uses Buddhist philosophy to explore cycles of harm and forgiveness across generations.

But Dialogue is sparse and symbolic. The pacing is glacial, and violence arrives without warning.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring poster

Hannah and Her Sisters1986

Marta Mehalse Kapur's understated Icelandic film about a widow grieving her son. Shot in wintry isolation, it finds quiet power in silence and routine.

But Extremely slow. Minimal plot. Some will find it beautiful, others will find it static.

A Gentle Creature2017

Sergei Loznitsa's portrait of a woman's grief and rage after her husband's mysterious death in Russian prison. Formally precise and morally uncompromising.

But Bleak and accusatory. The narrative is deliberately opaque, and there are no moments of relief.

Synonyms2019

Nadav Lapid's semi-autobiographical film about an Israeli man trying to erase his identity by becoming French. Sharp and funny about belonging, rejection, and self-invention.

But Chaotic and digressive. Some scenes feel self-indulgent, and the tone shifts abruptly.

Kes1970

Both show a young man in circumstances that predict his doom. Both insist on his full humanity anyway. Both end with shattering clarity about how little mercy systems offer.

Ken Loach's 1969 masterpiece about a working-class English boy and his falcon. Deceptively simple—it's about dignity, beauty, and what happens when the world offers nothing to poor children. A film about love that never uses the word.

But Period piece, regional dialect, slow pacing. Its political argument is embedded rather than stated.