MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Film round-up
Reviews of Young Ahmed, An American Pickle, Perfect, The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands and Flash Gordon
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
Young Ahmed (NR)
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
★★★
HOW does a studious, video game-loving Belgian teenage boy turn into a radicalised Muslim, hell-bent on killing his teacher? Can a blossoming friendship with a girl his own age who challenges his fanatical beliefs be enough to bring him around?
Those are the questions posed by this very powerful and slow-burning drama from writer-directors the Dardenne brothers.
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