The Boy from Lebanon

Based on a novel by Claude Klotz (MAN ON THE TRAIN), KILLER KID is a brutal exploration of the violence that adults inflict on children. Djilali (Teufik Jallab) is an 11-year-old Lebanese orphan recruited by a terrorist group to become a ruthless child assassin. Sent to Paris on a mission to assassinate the French President, Djilali enlists an unsuspecting Arab boy named Karim (Younesse Boudache) to help him blend into French society. Karim has grown up in a poor Parisian suburb and knows nothing of the indoctrinated fanaticism that informs Djilali's life--he is a carefree boy who loves rap music, skateboarding, cheeseburgers, and girls. Despite their cultural differences, the boys forge a genuine friendship, one that is soon tested by Djilali's conflicted duty to his terrorist mission. Writer/director Gilles De Maistre's gritty, cinema-verite style and the powerful lead performances of nonprofessional child actors Jallab and Boudache lend a truthful poignancy to the film's portrait of vanquished innocence.

Assassins | Based On A Novel | Children | Coming Of Age | Disturbing | Friends | Friendships | Paris, France | Terrorism | Terrorists