Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah to Direct ‘2000’ About Sexual Abuse Survivor’s Rebellion (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAdil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the Belgian directing duo behind “Bad Boys For Life” and Cannes’ Midnight Screening title “Rebel,” are developing “2000,” a film based on Dirk Bracke’s “Straks doet het geen pijn meer.” It will mark the pair’s return to Belgium after lining up “Ms.

Marvel” for Disney+ and “Batgirl” for HBO Max.Bracke’s book, whose title translates into the phrase “soon it will be alright,” is being adapted by El Arbi, Fallah and Bulle Decarpentries (“Carnivores”).The project, which will be El Arbi and Fallah’s first film in Flemish, reteams the pair with Nabil Ben Yadir at 10.80 Films (“Les Barons”), with whom they made “Black,” their critically acclaimed sophomore outing that won a flurry of awards, including Toronto’s Discovery award.

The book tells the true story of a teenage girl who is being sexually abused by her father and decides to fight back. This abuse survivor has been touch with the filmmakers and Decarpentries throughout the development of the feature, said Ben Yadir.

Like the book, the film will take place in 2000 and El Arbi and Fallah said they had the ambition to make a “historical film about this period.”El Arbi said he read the book when he was 14 and was “blown away by it,” and pledged to make a feature based on it. “It’s such a difficult topic and I was struck by the way it talked about teenagers, and about this young women who was abused by her father, I had never heard of something like that, at the time I was only watching action and gangster movies,” said El Arbi.“This book opened my eyes, I realized that it could happen to someone I know, someone in my class.