“24 Days” a Grim True Story
By Skip Sheffield
Sadly, the gripping hostage drama “24 Days,” playing Living
Room Theaters, is based on a true story.
If you watch this Algerian-French production to the end you
will know why I say “sadly.”
“24 Days,” directed by Alexandre Arcady, is based on a book
by Ruth Halimi, mother of Ilan Halimi, kidnapped in 2006 at age 23 in downtown
Paris.
Ilan was lured into an ambush by a pretty young woman. His
captors demanded a ransom of 450,000 Euros; an impossible sum for Illan’s
parents.
The kidnappers, a gang of 25 Barbarians let by Youssouf
Fofana (Tony Harrison), an obnoxious, anti-Semitic Islamic extremist from
Africa’s Ivory Coast, were convinced that Ilan’s family was rich, simply
because they were Jewish.
That is only one of the anti-Semitic stereotypes depicted in
this story. Ilan’s parents are in fact divorced and estranged. Mother Ruth
(Zabou Breitman) is increasingly desperate and emotional. Father Didier (Pascal
Elbe) is willing to go into debt for all he has to secure his son’s release.
The gang doesn’t care about religion or ideology as much as
it does about money. They are extortionists pure and simple, and sadists for
the cruelty and torture they impose upon helpless Ilan.
“24 Days” is a thoroughly unpleasant film, though
unfortunately the mindset of the criminals portrayed, is quite accurate. If
anything the precarious situation pitting nihilistic, murderous Islamic
radicals against the rest of civilization has only worsened since 2006. Yes the
French police could have done more, but against an enemy this terrible, there
is no rational defense.
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