Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, known as Adil & Bilall are directors of the moment. Having made their name with Belgian crime thrillers Image, Black and Gangsta, the duo were naturally snapped up by Hollywood. Their three-quel Bad Boys For Life with returning stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence went on to become the highest grossing of the franchise and the fourth highest earning film of 2020.
Afterwards they brought their unique vision to two episodes of Marvel Studios' Ms. Marvel to great acclaim and were due to have their Batgirl movie released later this year until the controversial choice to write the film off for tax reasons. Now they're back to their roots with Rebel.
Rebel is a film that feels very timely, dealing with the subject of radicalisation and the war in Syria, was it important for the two of you to shine a light on this?
Bilall: Yeah, it was our most personal, most important movie we've made in our careers. It really happened to people that we knew and grew up with. There were people I was in class with and one by one they were leaving, it was a phenomenon that happened in my neighbourhood. I come from Vilvoorde, percentage-wise the most young people that went to Syria came from my neighbourhood, so it's something that was really confronting. Then to see all the attacks that happened in Europe, in France, it was shocking to see. These young people are like us – Muslim, Moroccan, Belgian – we really wanted to tell this story. There's not a lot of series or movies told from a Muslim perspective, it's why why we felt we had to tell this story with all the complexity and nuance. That's why it's our most person, and our most important.
Your last big project that we were able to see was the Ms Marvel series which also dealt with being Muslim. Was the juxtaposition of a superhero story and this more realistic look at Islam a way of showing the difference in experience?
Adil: Yeah it was pretty interesting, as we were shooting Ms Marvel we were prepping Rebel, and at a certain point we were editing both the episodes and the movie. It shows a bit of the wide facet of the Muslim experience you would say. On the one hand you have this very optimistic, positive, inspiring story that's, you know, for kids. It's Marvel, it's Disney, so you have this girl who comes into this superhero world with superpowers all of a sudden, and her identity is is important but it's part of a larger story. But, this one is a historical movie, it's about a reality that happened at a certain point in Belgium. Everyone in Morocco and in Belgium have been touched by that at some point, and that aspect, that phenomenon. As filmmakers, and as Muslim filmmakers, it's very important to go into the superhero world, the MCU with Kamala Khan but at the same time tell stories that are very heartbreaking, and are very difficult and express that to the world.
Given the subject matter, and the setting, was there a concern that this could damage your chances of returning to Hollywood? America still has a big fear of Muslims, was there a fear that it would damage your chances of getting another big blockbuster?
Adil: For us it's important that the movie's good. That's the rule. Yes it can be controversial, but as long as the directing is well done, there's also some action scenes you would say, so I think everyone who saw it – in Hollywood at least – they were impressed by the work. Also it was a subject matter that they knew about for years and years. Jerry Bruckheimer, in 2015 when we met him, we told him the story. So it was a constant thing with Hollywood studios and producers – “oh yeah it's the boy's ISIS movie”.
When you're dealing with things like torture on screen, how difficult is it to show the reality of torture on screen and not becoming exploitative, not becoming like a Saw film?
Bilall: When we got to the edit we always tried to have as much footage as possible to balance it out. What we've learnt by making this movie is, it's not showing the torture but the result of the torture. The psychological result of violence, as an audience you don't need to see, but you feel it. People say to us “oh it's so hard” but you don't really see much. You don't see someone get their head cut, but because you feel it, it's psychological violence that's important. We wanted to go into the head of our characters and let the audience experience the same feelings. That's what we always try to find in the editing.
Adil: It's always, obviously, the intention not to be exploitative but at the same time to show the impact. It's like when you watch Scorsese movies, how far can you go? We don't want to make something that colours the reality and tries to avoid the rawness of what happens.
As a directing duo, is there a method with work. Do you deal with one area each or is it always a joint decision?
Bilall: It's always a joint decision. Outside of our movies we're like brothers and we have our differences. But when making movies it's always that one vision. Adil is maybe more script wise, developing the script. When shooting it really depends, sometimes I'm with the camera man, sometimes I'm with the actors. During edits, the post-production, I'm more on it.
When it comes to a film like this, is there a chance of a big big release. I know people are still apprehensive about spending money to see things that aren't superhero films, will there be a big global release or a slow rollout?
Adil: Well, this film, more than say Bad Boys for Life or Ms Marvel, is more the arthouse movie. In Belgium, because we're from here, it's a wide release. It's doing really well because we have a relationship with the audience. But, this is the first time we didn't really worry about how it's going to do because we wanted to make a really artistic project, no compromise. So, any release that's happening is a plus for us, that UK audiences are going to watch this movie that's amazing. We had a movie that cancelled! So we're grateful that people can see this one. I think it's starting to do it's festival career, it premiered at Cannes which was amazing, and it's going all around the world and winning prizes. We also hope that we get to show the United States, so it's a slow step-by-step career for this film.
Looking at this film, and your career in general, music plays a massive part in pretty much everything. Would you two ever consider a full blown musical, an all singing, all dancing thing?
Bilall: Yeah! We have a couple of projects in our minds that are full blown musicals. As you say music has always been a big part of our identity as people, and as directors. Hopefully we can make a full-blown musical.
Adil: It's a dream, actually. Step by step we go more and more into the musical. But making an all-out Baz Luhrmann type musical is our secret goal. It's super difficult, but if we can achieve that it's on the wishlist.
Well not to give anything away about the ending, but the final scene I was watching “well this took a weird turn” but also if they could maintain this for a two-hour film that would be amazing.
Adil: When we had those scenes, it was the first time we'd ever done that, it's also because ISIS was against music. They were against female voices. So, how do you make an anti-ISIS film? You have a musical element in it. But we had a B-plan if it didn't work out which was to edit the scenes out. But we saw that it really worked. Audiences are confused at first, it's weird at first, but we go emotionally into that. The boss of Cannes actually said “you got any more musical moments?” So next time we're gonna go all the way!
Obviously, in conversation with the two of you, I have to offer my condolences for the way Batgirl got treated. That was one of the films I was most excited for, I'm a big Batgirl comic book fan, she's one of my favourite characters. So, when I heard you two were handling it, I thought this was going to be great. Is there any update on what might happen with it, or is it still kept under armed guard?
Adil: As far as we know it's in the freezer. You can still go out of the freezer, maybe. But we don't know. Obviously it stays in our mind, because we had Batgirl and Leslie Grace did a great job, and Michael Keaton as Batman! But also Brendan Fraser, who's maybe going to win an Oscar. He just gave this amazing performance, and I think the world deserves to at least to see that. Obviously we don't know anything about the future, but we hope we get to prove ourselves with a DC property. As fans you can always dream and hope.
It feels like they missed a trick, it looks like Brendan Fraser is winning that Oscar, and you'd want to trade on that good will everyone has towards him. It's a real shame.
Adil: When we were shooting those scenes with Brendan we were like “this guy is going to win an Oscar!” He's such a great, complex, nuanced, memorable villain. Who knows, if he wins an Oscar maybe that might help us, who knows?
Just finally, when the news of Batgirl broke you shared a message that Kevin Feige, President of Marvel, sent you. Would you consider a return to Marvel? Ms. Marvel was so popular, and wonderful, would you consider doing a Marvel film, and if so which character?
Bilall: Absolutely, if we have the chance we are there. Marvel movies are family movies. We would love to make a Ms. Marvel movie, a movie that really focusses on her. That's the dream, but we are open to any other story.
Signature Entertainment presents Rebel on Digital Platforms 16th January
