their experiences growing up as Belgian Moroccans,
but with high-energy entertainment value and emo-
tional storytelling.
The directing pair attracted international atten-
tion in 2015 with their second feature-length film,
Black, aWest Side Story–type gangland tale that was
filmed and set in Molenbeek, the Brussels neighbor-
hood that has since become synonymous with Islamic
terrorism. Many of the men who carried out the Paris
terrorist attacks in 2015 lived there, but El Arbi was
determined to show a different side of the residents.
The cast, made up of locals, “shows how many tal-
ented people are there, that a big generation of people
want to do something positive,” he says.
Black made a splash at the Toronto International
Film Festival in 2015, and Hollywood came calling.
“Even thoughBlack is a hard movie about gangs, it
has this accessible way of telling the story, and that
is what they were looking for,” he says.
El Arbi, 29, suddenly found himself meeting peo-
ple like legendaryTop Gunproducer Jerry Bruck-
heimer, among other studio executives. Asked what
kind of films they wanted to make, he and Fallah
confessed their ambition to make Hollywood block-
busters. In 2016, they got the call to directBeverly
Hills Cop 4,the long-awaited comeback for Eddie
Murphy’s Axel Foley. It might seem a world away
from the streets of Molenbeek, but El Arbi says the
new film will be a return to the original’s grittier feel.
It’s partly set in Detroit, a “rough, hard world... that
is also a bit like Brussels,” says El Arbi.
The pair have also directed the first two episodes
ofSnowfall, a pilot series for FX about the U.S.
crack epidemic of the 1980s, and have been tapped
to directThe Big Fix, about the FIFA corruption
scandal. El Arbi’s experience in the U.S. so far has
been uniformly positive, he says, but as a Muslim
he cannot help but be aware of challenges in a world
where nationalism and xenophobic sentiment have
crept into the mainstream. It was easy growing up
feeling as if there were “nothing to fight for,” he
says. But now people his age have something on
which to focus their energies. “Art and anger, and a
willingness to fight and struggle, will make this one
of the greatest generations,” he says.
—CHARLOTTE MCDONALD-GIBSON▼
‘ART AND
ANGER, AND A
WILLINGNESS
TO FIGHT AND
STRUGGLE,
WILL MAKE
THIS ONE OF
THE GREATEST
GENERATIONS.’PHOTOGRAPH BY NICK BALLON FOR TIME