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France · 2005
1h 33m
Director Géla Babluani
Starring George Babluani, Aurélien Recoing, Pascal Bongard, Fred Ulysse
Genre Action, Thriller
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Sebastian, a young man, has decided to follow instructions intended for someone else, without knowing where they will take him. Something else he does not know is that Gerard Dorez, a cop on a knife-edge, is tailing him. When he reaches his destination, Sebastian falls into a degenerate, clandestine world of mental chaos behind closed doors in which men gamble on the lives of others men.
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The artiest entry in the ever growing torture-movie genre, this playfully wicked French thriller from twentysomething provocateur Gela Babluani blasts its way into your brainpan with the help of black-and-white widescreen cinematography whose striking but smooth textures better suit the upwardly mobile auteur than his poor protagonist.
For me, the meticulous style, the fascination with ritualized (and ludicrous) violence and the film-geek self-referentiality all seem like markers of a film made by a young man, for other young men. If I were 23, and full to the brim with dark-hearted existentialism, I might love it too.
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
The work of both Babluani brothers is weirdly stilled and mature, already devoid of the need to show off--serves only to thicken the horror.
Shot like the grunge version of a '50s noir thriller from France (or Soviet Georgia), the black-and-white 13 (Tzameti) turns into a shocker of Tarantino proportions in protracted sequences of explosive violence that leave viewers quaking.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
The resulting jolts add up to one unforgettably surreal nightmare. Just be sure your heart can handle any surprises headed your way.
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Not for the faint-hearted.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Shot in neorealist black-and-white, it opens like a gritty slice of social drama, then takes a sharp turn into bleak, existential horror.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
With its icy cynicism and desolate settings, the film evokes the work of the young Roman Polanski in his sadistic trickster mode.
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
Géla Babluani is unmistakably a first-timer, and his debut project is raw and rough-edged. But he aces the way simple images can make the most of a simple story.
Starts slowly but builds, Hitchcock-style, to a terrifying crescendo. And don't fool yourself into thinking you know what's going to happen.
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