24 Days - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

24 Days (French: 24 jours, la vérité sur l'affaire Ilan Halimi — lit. 24 Days: The True Story of the Ilan Halimi Affair) is a French drama film directed by Alexandre Arcady released in 2014. It examines The Affair of the Gang of Barbarians of January 2006.

Synopsis

On a Friday night of January 2006, after Shabbat dinner with his mother (Zabou Breitman) and sister, 23-year-old Ilan Halimi (Syrus Shahidi) receives a phone call. Ilan quickly arranges to meet up with the caller, a beautiful young woman, and is subsequently attacked and kidnapped by a gang. The following afternoon, the Halimi family are sent a harrowing online message demanding a ransom for Ilan's return. Ilan's parents, Ruth and Didier Halimi (played by Pascal Elbé), immediately contact the police.

The police, failing to recognize the anti-Semitism behind the attack, treat Ilan's case as a normal kidnapping. The film depicts the next 24 days, in which the Halimi family receives over 700 threatening phone calls from Ilan's kidnappers. Tensions rise between the family and the police assigned to their case, as days go by without Ilan's safe return. Eventually, more is discovered about Ilan's kidnapper (Tony Harrisson Mpoudja), who seems to be in multiple places at once. The film is a chilling depiction of the real-life events surrounding the attack, and presents a commentary on growing anti-Semitism in France.