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| Keeping the Faith
| | | Clashes between cultures and the contradictions between religion and secular society are key themes in many films on this year's festival. How does one manage to live as Muslim in Europe in the midst of controversies regarding head scarves and mosques? And how to make sense of one's identity as a Muslim woman with such conflicting values and lifestyles? Furthermore, what is true faith and what is not, wonder many current filmmakers.
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Faith
Ayla | | Burhan Qurbani's episode film Shahada explores the contradictions between liberal and fundamentalist readings on religion. A young woman's traumatic experience pushes her towards religious fundamentalism, while a young man agonizes over how to fit together his religion and sexual orientation.
Su Turhan's Ayla focuses on the position of women in Islam. A family faces crisis as the daughter leaves her husband to raise her child on her own. As things escalate, a threat of violence soon looms in the air.
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Hadewijch On the
Path (Na utu)
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| The main character of Bruno Dumont's Hadewijch is also struggling with the depths of her religious devotion. Céline only cares for having a relationship with Jesus, and feels the need to act on her faith. Dumont's film centers on Céline's passionate search for a pure spiritual experience.
Meanwhile, Jasmila Žbanic's On the Path (Na putu) depicts religious awakening from a bystander's point of view as a wife struggles to adjust to her husband's newfound ideals. Should she abandon all hope about salvaging their marriage after her husband develops close ties with a Islamist community?
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