Mothers, Girone and Lambert Isis' victims in Marbini's film

Rome - The making of 'Mothers', one of the first films that deals explicitly with the issue of foreign fighters, has been concluded in Bologna. The film by Liana Marabini focuses on the parents of Western boys who join the Islamic State (IS). It stars Christopher Lambert and Remo Girone, along with young actors like Mara Gualandris, Margherita Remotti, Francesco Meola and Francesco Riva. It was filmed in English and will have an international distribution. "The idea of this film comes from observing the world around me," director Liana Marabini ('The Gardener of God', 'Shades of Truth') told AGI. "In France, where I live a few months a year, the phenomenon has grown enormously. Also in Britain, many young people leave the house and the city where they were born and depart for Syria. Who can forget the infamous Jihadi John? Many psychoanalysts are specialising in the treatment of the parents of these young people. They are victims of their children's choices. They have feelings of guilt, their lives change dramatically and, as you can see in my film, sometimes they lose their jobs and friends. Germany has set up an institute that specialises in radicalization and de-radicalization. It also houses an association, 'Mothers for Life', formed by mothers of foreign fighters".

'Mothers' is a deep spiritual analysis of a topical drama, that of parents who have to deal with the radical choices of their children. "I was inspired by real cases and characters. My psychoanalytical studies combined with my deep faith allowed me to gain insight into the soul of those affected by this phenomenon. I have seen young people in search of identity and recognition, I've seen parents torn by the choices of their children. Muslim and Christian parents: they all suffer the same way. They feel betrayed and overtaken by events, overwhelmed by incomprehension. They wonder why their children have made such radical choices." The film's main stars, Remo Girone and Christopher Lambert, play characters whose lives are changed by IS. "Remo plays a father whose only twenty-year-old daughter falls in love with a Syrian through Facebook. She leaves her father's house to marry him. Later, she finds herself in an ugly apartment in Raqqa, along with other wives of the same man. Lambert plays a Jewish documentary maker who finds himself faced with an Islamic terrorist by chance, and kills him. His life changes completely after this incident, for which he was unprepared." 'Mothers', produced by Condor Pictures, will be ready for the U.S. market on August 10. (AGI)