Film Review: ‘Who Do I Belong To’ by Meryam Joobeur
Rating: ★★★★★
Berlinale’s main competition title, “Who Do I Belong To,” directed by Meryam Joobeur, addresses the controversial and sensitive topic of Jihadism, and explores it with a fresh take within the setting of a family in a small rural community in Tunisia.
“Who Do I Belong To” tells the story of Aicha, who lives in the isolated north of Tunisia with her husband and youngest son. The family lives in anguish after the departure of the eldest sons Mehdi and Amine to the violent embrace of war. When Mehdi unexpectedly returns home with a mysterious pregnant wife, a darkness emerges, threatening to consume the entire village. Aicha is caught between her maternal love and her search for the truth.
In the opening scene of the film, we see a sturdy tree full of branches and leaves, which is clearly rooted deep in the soil. Somewhere on the tree trunk, a white cloth is tied as a bandage to protect a deep wound. In this opening scene, the director metaphorically compares Aicha and Brahim’s family to this sturdy tree with deep roots. The white cloth tied as a bandage on the tree metaphorically shows that this family is suffering from a deep wound; A wound so deep that it may never heal, and may threaten the deep roots and originality of this family and tear it apart.
In the film, we see a lot of emphasis on close shots of the characters; these shots both characterize and create a sense of suffocation. This type of framing makes the background blurry. Considering the film’s subject, it suggests that the truth and the past are suppressed in these shots, or the characters are avoiding confronting them.
The characters lack the ability to confront the truth; and they try to either deceive themselves or lie to others to avoid facing the truth; for the simple reason that accepting the truth has dire consequences. In one scene of the film, Aicha tells Fatma: “Truth is only in the hands of God.”
The themes of choice and victimization are intertwined like a key in a lock, serving as a central motif in the film. Mehdi and Amin choose to become jihadists and join ISIS, sacrificing their family in the process. Mehdi decides to leave his brother Amin behind and sacrifice him to save himself. Aicha decides to embrace her son after he becomes a jihadist and support him and her wife. With this choice, she sacrifices her family life and her relationship with her husband. It seems that all the characters in the film, with the choices they make, end up sacrificing someone else.
Each of the characters in the film represents a value in the small rural community. Aicha represents responsibility, Brahim represents conscience, Adam represents innocence, Bilal represents justice, Mehdi represents sin, and Reem represents atonement for a sin. The writer and director of the film, Meryam Joobeur, skillfully handles the characterization.
In the end, the characters in the film come face to face with the truth, confront it, and lay it to rest. Aicha is the one who carries the heavy burden of truth, but the very truth she tried to deny and avoid seeing, by accepting it, leads to the healing of the deep wound on her hand.
Meryam Joobeur’s first feature film has a powerful screenplay with strong characterization, captivating cinematography, and brilliant music that seamlessly blends with the film’s texture.
“Who Do I Belong To” world-premiered in the main competition section at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale 2024) on February 22.
