The Producers
Rudi Vranckx is a Flemish journalist working for the VRT News. He usually reports on international conflicts (Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Syria) His work is internationally recognized and aired on several channels. As a war journalist, he has reported in Romania in 1989 during the fall of dictator Ceausescu, the Gulf War, the wars in Yugoslavia, the Congo, and the major conflicts in the Middle East. During the violent protests against the Mubarak regime in Egypt, he remained one of the last European journalists on the spot. Afterwards he travelled to Libya, where a fierce battle had just raged between supporters and opponents of Qadhafi. He has since worked on documentaries in Kurdistan on ISIS and the Muslim community in Belgium among others. Since 2008, Vranckx has had his own TV program, which shows mainly foreign documentaries and airs on VRT in Belgium. He has also written several books.
As violence continues to spread throughout the Middle East, a growing number of young Muslims from all over Europe are leaving their home towns to fight for ISIS. In the last year alone over 400 young Belgians have traveled to Syria. This film visits the region of Vilvoorde to investigate why so many young Belgians are becoming radicalized, and how leaders of the Muslim community are attempting to combat it.