13 Tzameti

I'm afraid my esteemed colleague's reviewing is continuing to put me in the shade as I still haven't made it to the cinema since returning. I'm still catching up with reviews, so I'm afraid you'll just have to put up with them. But when the film is as good, and as intruiging, as 13 Tzameti it's all good.

The plot is an interesting premise. A down-on-his-luck (and money) labourer is working for a dubious character when said character commits suicide leaving behind a clandestine set of instructions. Since he has nothing to lose, Sebastien (played with real aplomb and panache by George Babluani, the director's brother), decides to take the instructions and follow them himself. Intruigued? I'm afraid these meagre words don't do the concept justice and I'd be surprised if you weren't intruiged by the time Sebastian boards the train to Paris.

Shot in a stylish and fashionable black and white, the tone and bleakness of the film is very much in hommage to some of the great French new wave films of the fifties and sixties and the choice of the black and white proves highly effective. It is really and truly Sebastien's film. Other characters are poorly developed and flit in and out very superficially, not that this is intended as a huge criticism. The film is intended to be one man's story and it works - thanks, in no small measure, to Babluani's performance. I can't say too much more without giving a lot away, suffice it to say that the film's second half is increddibly tense and gripping so have an arm of a chair near by. I don't remember feeling so tense and chlostrophobic in a film for a long time. Which brings me to my final point. I actually saw this well over a month ago and, though I liked it, thought that it couldn't possibly stand up to a second viewing. I realise I was wrong and I'm looking forward to seeing it again in - hopefully - the not-too-distant future and I have no hesitation in giving it a well-deserved...

A-

See it without finding out anything else about it and, possibly, before the Hollywood remake comes out, although it is being directed by Babluani (Gela) himself.