Teasing out the seductive nature of terrorism through cinema

According to a recent report by The Straits Times, around 392 Indonesians are currently fighting in Syria for ISIS, making Indonesia the Southeast Asian nation with the highest number of ISIS combatants.

Since its conception in 2014, ISIS has significantly increased its propaganda, using sophisticated recruitment techniques to lure vulnerable youth through social media, online advertisements and dangerously appealing films.

Through its own media branch, Al Hayat Media Center, ISIS disseminates recruitment videos with surprisingly high production quality, to which an alarming amount of young people from across the globe have responded.

The total number of Southeast Asian fighters in Syria is great enough that they’ve formed their own military unit under ISIS, known as Katibah Nusantara.

Established in September 2014, Katibah Nusantara actively recruits members in the region, assists new recruits in settling in and connecting with other ISIS members, and offers tutorials for logistical and tactical training.

But who are these young people who decide to join ISIS and pack their bags for a destination plagued with horror and death?

What was the motive behind their decision? What kind of families do they leave behind? How were they seduced by ISIS?

These are crucial questions which require an answer, now more than ever.

However, the answer doesn’t just lie within the security and intelligence resources available; such a complex topic calls for research of an equally complex nature.

Italian filmmaker and sound designer, Bruce Gil, is convinced that art and storytelling play a crucial role in today’s society, and can help us answer the tough questions by connecting people of diverse social backgrounds in a transversal way.

“With artistic language, it’s possible to translate complex issues of a political, ideological, academic or scientific nature, and make them more accessible and comprehensible to the general public – a fundamental function of modern democracies,” Bruce stresses.

For more than six months, Bruce worked alongside Indonesian director and scholar, Noor Huda Ismail, to create ‘Jihad Selfie’, a documentary which follows the journey of a 17-year-old Indonesian youth who desired to follow in his friends’ footsteps and join ISIS.

The documentary was shot in Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey where ISIS members and sympathisers were interviewed.

More often than not, we have a very vague and distorted understanding of what happens outside of our own democracies.

Many of us would grapple with the idea that in places such as Indonesia, ISIS has relatively liberal access to everyday people through their online propaganda which circulates the Internet.

“The people that work for ISIS are highly knowledgeable about the media and techniques,” Bruce says, admitting that he was surprised by the production quality of the films and images released by the organisation.

‘Jihad Selfie’ aims to expose the fact that terrorists are not born terrorists, but have come to embody an idea, belief and ideology that have been passed on to them in some way, usually through the social networks they’re embedded in.

“Terrorists are often seen as people prone to violence, naturally cruel and psychologically unsound,” Bruce explains.

“With this documentary, we wanted to demonstrate the normality of these people.”

Conveying this concept on the screen was a challenge, as there was a great deal of data available on the complex topic of terrorism which needed to be simplified and expressed in an engaging way through the use of music, visuals and language.

Bruce was guided by Huda, a PhD Candidate in Politics and International Relations at Monash University, who also founded an organisation that helps former ISIS fighters re-integrate into society.

Also author of the novel My friend, the terrorist?, Huda is no stranger to the strong pull of extremist movements.

When he was 12 years old, his father sent him to an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, where he was invited to join Darul Islam, a radical group which aimed to change the Indonesian secular system into sharia law.

Huda's roommate and friend, Hasan, was also recruited to Darul Islam and later won a scholarship to further his studies in Pakistan.

Huda missed out because he was caught dating the daughter of one of his teachers and grounded as a consequence.

Fifteen years later, the duo was reunited in the wake of the Bali bombings.

Huda was covering the incident as a correspondent for The Washington Post, and Hasan was one of the bombers.

In that moment, Huda realised it could have quite easily been him in Hasan’s shoes, and he began to question how normal people like his school friend can become radicalised and willingly kill and be killed in the name of religion.

‘Jihad Selfie’ will be screened for the first time in Australia on Tuesday, June 13, at the Italian Cultural Institute.

The documentary has been aired around 80 times before more than 15,000 people in various locations across the world, including Indonesia, Singapore, Pakistan, the UK and the US, all within a year of its release.

Born in Verona, Bruce has been based in Melbourne for two years now, and has managed to build a career out of his passion for film, working with the likes of Australian rapper Dub Fx, among others.

With his involvement in ‘Jihad Selfie’, Bruce has not only channelled his creativity to produce a compelling piece of work, he has also offered a valuable insight into the world of radical groups and helped society take one step forward in understanding the intricate issue of extremism.