Gods of Molenbeek

Info

Original title
Aatos ja Amine

DURATION
75’ & 55’, children’s version 25’

Script
Reetta Huhtanen

Director
Reetta Huhtanen

Cinematography
Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen

Editing
Jamin Benazzouz

Sound recording
Reetta Huhtanen, Bert Aets

Sound design
Senja Jansen

Music
Tuomas Nikkinen, Cassis B. Staudt

Producer
Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen / Zone 2 Pictures

Co-producers
Hanne Phlypo / Clin d’Oeil Films, Alex Tondowski, Iris Pakulla / Tondowski Films

Production year
2018

International sales and distribution
CAT&Docs

Festivals and awards

DocPoint 2019 – opening film, Finland

Göteborg Film Festival 2019, Nordic Competition, Sweden

Tampere International Film Festival – National Competition, Finland

One World 2019, Czech Republic

Millennium Film Festival 2019, Belgium

Docville 2019, Belgium

Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2019 – Youth Section, Greece

Visions du Reel 2019 – Grand Angle Section, opening film, Switzerland

The Magnificent 7 Film Festival 2019, Belgrade

Hot Docs 2019, Toronto, World showcase, Canada

DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2019, Canada

DOKFest München 2019, Germany

CinéDOC Tbilisi 2019, Georgia

Krakow Film Festival 2019, Poland

OsloPix Film Festival 2019, Norway

Biogram Festival 2019, Italy

Midnight Sun Film Festival 2019, Finland

Shanghai International Film Festival, China

FEST – New Directors New Films Festival 2019, Golden Lynx – the main prize in the feature length documentary film competition, Portugal

Dokufest, Human Rights Dox –competition, Kosovo

Ilokuva-festival, Finland

Blue Sea Film Festival, Finland

EBS International Documentary Film Festival, South Korea

MakeDox, Macedonia

Sakhalin International Film Festival, Russia

Baltic Sea Doc Forum, Latvia

Dahuk International Film Festival, Iraq

Love & Anarchy – Helsinki International Film Festival, Finland

Salina Doc Fest, Italy

Take One Action Film Festival, UK

Irish Film Institute’s Documentary Film Festival, Ireland

RIFF – Reykjavik International Film Festival, Iceland – special mention

The district of Molenbeek in Brussels has reputation in media as a center of jihadism, but for six-year-old Aatos and his friend Amine, it is a familiar home. Here, they listen to spiders, discover black holes, and fight about what is going to steer a flying carpet. Together they search for the answers to life’s big questions. But the brutality of the adult world makes itself known when terrorists detonate a bomb in the neighborhood. Aatos envies Amine’s Muslim faith and looks for his own gods, although his classmate Flo questions him; she is strongly convinced that anyone who believes in God has gone crazy. Gods of Molenbeek is a wonderful portrayal of childhood friendship, inquiry and the creation of meaning in a chaotic time.