Timur BEKMAMBETOV
Тимур БЕКМАМБЕТОВ
Timour BEKMAMBETOV
USA / United Kingdom / Cyprus / Russian Federation , 2018, 105mn 
fiction
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 Profil

 
Directed by : Timur BEKMAMBETOV (Тимур БЕКМАМБЕТОВ)
Writing credits : Timur BEKMAMBETOV (Тимур БЕКМАМБЕТОВ), Olga KHARINA (Ольга ХАРИНА)
Based on the book ‘In the Skin of a Jihadist’ (‘Dans la peau d’une djihadiste’) by Anna Erelle
Produced by : Timur BEKMAMBETOV (Тимур БЕКМАМБЕТОВ), Olga KHARINA (Ольга ХАРИНА)
Other persons :
Screenplay : Brittany Poulton / scénario : Brittany Poulton
Acteurs : Valene Kane (Amy), Shazad Latif (Bilel), Christine Adams (Vick), Amir Rahimzadeh (Lou), Morgan Watkins (Matthew)
 

Plot synopsis
In order to investigate the recruitment of young European women by ISIS, journalist Amy Whittaker creates a new Facebook profile. Posing as a convert named ‘Melody Nelson’ she contacts ISIS fighter Bilel in Syria. Sitting on the sofa, her hair hidden by a hijab, she chats for hours as this charismatic British man with Pakistani roots describes his everyday life as a jihadist, cooks with her, and pays her compliments. He quickly gets to the point: while Amy is secretly recording their conversations for an investigative TV show, he urges her to fly to Syria and become his wife. Switching ever more swiftly between reality and the tapestry of lies she has constructed in her conversations with Bilel, Amy finds herself becoming dangerously enthralled by him. Director Timur Bekmambetov’s film about Anna Erelle’s factual account of her experiences as an undercover journalist demonstrates the speed and boundlessness of the digital world which he appropriately opts to show exclusively on a computer monitor - in social media windows, search engines and editing programmes. The result is a fascinating, highly topical and intense thriller.
https://www.berlinale.de/
 

commentaries
Cinq films de Timour Bekmambetov à voir absolument, Valeria PAÏKOVA, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2022
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- War in contemporary Russian cinema, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2020
- Festival Fantasia, Montreal (Canada), 2018
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), 2018
- Festival international du film de La Roche sur Yon, La Roche sur Yon (France), 2018
- Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 2018
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2018
- International Zurich Film Festival, Zurich (Switzerland), 2018
- Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival : NIFF, Neuchâtel (Switzerland), 2018
- The Times BFI London Film Festival, London (United Kingdom), 2018