Faces of Terror

Examining Terrorist Acts in France

Why are Europeans, children of immigrants like Coulibaly or the Kouachis brothers, attacking their countries of birth? What leads them to reject the values of the nation in which they grew up, to be reborn as extremists of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. What role does religion play and which religion? What propaganda and mental mechanisms are being used to convince this generation of killers that they must turn vigilante on behalf of their victimised Muslim world? These are the questions that director, Stéphane Benture, attempts to answer. He explores the breaking points, the existential problems and the fractures of identity that marked out the lives of Amedy Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers. Their stories also help tell the journey of those involved in the Paris attacks. Benture meets the people closest to them: family, teachers and friends and goes through archive documents, tracing the paths of these renegades of French society.