In this week’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo brings back directors Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah to discuss the film “Rebel.” The dramatic musical thriller follows a Muslim Belgian family as they are slowly ripped apart by Islamic extremists through various devious radicalization techniques. The film stars Aboubakr Bensaihi, Lubna Azabal, Tara Abboud, Amir El Arbi, and more. 
READ MORE: ‘Rebel’ Review: Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah’s Radicalization Drama Pulsates With Terrible Inevitability [Cannes]
During the interview, the filmmaking duo discuss how personal the film is to them as it mirrors many experiences they had growing up in Belgium. 
“It’s our most personal project ever,” El Arbi said. Fallah continued, “It’s a composite of several stories, but it started in 2012 or 2013 in my neighborhood, Vilvoorde, next to Brussels. The highest percentage of young Muslims that went to Syria come from my neighborhood, so I really saw one by one leaving, and it was people I went to school with, people I played soccer with. It was really a weird phenomenon, why this was happening.”
“The years went further, and we see then the attacks in France happen,” he said. “In Belgium, there were videos of Isis coming out, and then I see these guys that I grew up with in the same neighborhood, and it was really shocking and emotional for us to see that because they have the same profile as us – they’re Muslim Belgian-Moroccans that did this. So, we wanted to understand what was going on, and it was very personal and very important to tell this story.”
READ MORE: ‘Batgirl’ Directors Say Experience Is The “Biggest Disappointment” Of Their Careers & There’s No Secret Cut To Be Leaked
Of course, you can’t have a conversation with the directing duo without mentioning the recent controversy surrounding their “Batgirl” film being shelved by David Zaslav and Warner Bros in an effort to cut costs. The filmmakers describe the experience as the “biggest disappointment” of their careers.
“Without a doubt, it’s the biggest disappointment of our career because we do this because of passion, you know?” El Arbi said. “When you want to make a movie, you love the story, the characters, Gotham City, and DC and all that. Choosing is losing, and we had to turn down another fantastic project for it — we lost ‘Beverly Hills Cop 4’ in order to do Batgirl, which makes it even more painful because it was a tough, tough decision. So, yeah – you do it with your heart and soul, and honestly, the biggest disappointment is, besides not being able to showcase the talent, especially Leslie Grace, who gave a phenomenal performance. Very nuanced, very human portrayal of Batgirl with a lot of vulnerability and strength. It was a very relatable character. But yeah — it’s to the fans, the fandom. We love the fandom and the audience — they’re our bosses. And to not be able to allow them to judge the movie for themselves is a big disappointment.”
Bilall Fallah continued El Arbi’s sentiment. “What I remember is a very painful period. I was not afraid [this would affect our careers] because we just started editing, so it’s like, the movie still had a long way to go, so whatever was being said [about the quality] was not really important. For us, it was important that, and we were still hoping that, ‘Ugh. I’m hoping this movie will still see the light.’”
So, is there a secret cut sitting on one of their laptops like Zack Snyder had for “Justice League,” or David Ayer supposedly has for his “Suicide Squad” cut? Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
“No, we tried, man,” El Arbi said. “It’s nowhere to be seen. We never saw it again. I mean, never say never. I guess we’ll see, but we never got our day in court. We didn’t get the chance to make our case. It just happened. We’re still not 100% sure what happened. But yeah, the thing is. that’s just the decision that was made, and we hope maybe one day we’ll get the chance to explore the world of Batgirl and Gotham City and go back there.”
The directors have already shot their next project, which will be the fourth entry in the “Bad Boys” franchise. The duo directed the successful third entry, “Bad Boys For Life,” in 2020 and are excited to bring a new take to the latest and possibly final film.
“Well, you know, the title that we like — I don’t know that they’re going to go for it yet — would be like, ‘Bad Boys Ride or Die,’ because ‘Bad Boys 4 Life’ is already taken,” El Arbi shared. “We didn’t know there was going to be a fourth one, you know? But yeah, what’s going to happen in this one is, I think that there’s going to be way more comedy. The third one had a dramatic tone. With this one, it’s really our purpose to get people laughing and having a good time in the theater. Martin [Lawrence] is going to a higher level in this one. This is the culmination of the Marcus Burnett arc.”
“Rebel” is in limited theaters on September 15th. You can hear the full discussion below:

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