The Flower of Aleppo

Review by Courtney Blankenship

The short:

A Tunisian mother, Salma, travels to Syria in search of her son who was lured and recruited into ISIS. She poses as a recruit, herself, and finds herself directly in danger while attempting to find him without letting anyone around her know that this is what she is doing.

The long:

Salma, a Tunisian mother and paramedic going through a divorce, struggles to connect with her young, impressionable teenage son, Mourad, who has been lured into a kind of “brotherhood” that has preyed on his feelings of helplessness and desire for belonging as he watches his parents’ marriage fall apart. As he gets more and more drawn into the group, his religious views become more extreme, and he sets off for Aleppo, Syria to join ISIS. His mother tries to convince him to come back to no avail, so she poses as a recruit herself and travels to Syria to get Mourad back before it is too late and he becomes fully indoctrinated.

To watch or not to watch:

I thought it was a decent film, and while I am glad I watched it, it is a film for mature audiences. The subject matter is quite heavy, this is not a feel-good movie. I felt that the acting and filming techniques were well done, and this movie illustrated some of the ways that extremist groups can exploit vulnerabilities when recruiting people, but some scenes were pretty dark and could be triggering for viewers, so watch at your discretion.