Dugma: The Button Trailer (2016)

Trailer for Dugma: The Button.

Embedded in an al-Qaeda unit on the front lines of the Syrian Civil War, director Paul S. Refsdal captures the heart-stopping stories of two "martyrdom seekers" about to embark on a suicide bombing. We meet Abu Qusawara, a well-fed Saudi with a beautiful falsetto and a passion for fried chicken. And we meet Abu Basir, a bookish Brit whose fierce yearning for a martyr's death is called into question when he becomes a husband and a father. As Refsdal observes the banal, often darkly amusing rituals of life on the martyrdom "waiting list," he offers an unprecedented glimpse into the hearts and minds of young jihadis, revealing their juvenile humour, their spiritual fervour and their crippling fears and insecurities. With its gripping interviews and immersive battle scenes, Dugma is one of the most vivid portraits of religious extremism that has ever been put on film.