There are so many elements which decide who you become as a person. Of course the place you are born has a huge influence, but also how you were raised, your friends and the setbacks you face all play a role in forming your personality and where in life you eventually end up. For some that is a bad place and is documentary you see how a group of young people with their own issues follow a course which should help them to find a job.
They are all at a point in their lives where they don´t have any opportunity of getting a job, because of things they have gone through )like having a child or dealing with alcohol abuse. They have no work experience, sometimes do not know how to properly present themselves or deal with other people and their feelings. The aim of the course is to teach them these skills. They are young people who have lost their self-esteem and where some of them to fight for themselves (sometimes literally). Director Kari Anne Moe captures their progress.
There is one young man who stands out, Jan Olav. He was just released from prison, dreams of becoming a world-famous rapper (even though he knows it isn’t realistic), has trouble reading and isn’t able to control his anger. He’s someone who really wants to change his life, but because of his unpredictability is constantly making it difficult for the people giving the course and forces them to take difficult decisions.
It’s Jan Olav who gives the documentary its heart because he’s an extremely fascinating and colorful personality. It means that the other people following the course don’t get as much screen time. The end result is that you don’t feel a strong connection with them or don’t completely understand which issues they are dealing with and that’s a shame. Because of that Rebels registers what happens during one of these courses and mainly focusses on one person, while showing small pieces of other people’s stories. The end result is that this documentary isn’t well balanced and you wonder whether the focus should have been completely on Jan Olav, which could have made this documentary more impactful.
