In a story ripped from today’s headlines, terrorists recruit Djilali, a Lebanese orphan. They teach him to shoot, to fight, to hate, and to be a soldier. When he goes to Paris to assassinate the French President he meets Karim, a boy from the poor, Arab section of the city, being used unwittingly to help Djilali blend in. Karim knows nothing of terrorism. His interests are those of a boy his age: rap music, skateboarding, cheeseburgers and a crush on a 16-year-old classmate. The boys become close, vowing to remain friends “for better or for worse.” But eventually Djilali must choose between his mission and the life of his friend. Shot in a gritty, pseudo-documentary style, THE BOY FROM LEBANON is a brutal portrait of the semantics of war, terror and duty.
