Writer(s): Babluani
Starring: George Babluani, Aurelien Recoing, Pascal Bongard, and Fred Ulysse
Most movies are better the less you know about them going in. But the catch to that is often times the trailer already shows you more than you need to know; it’s almost as if the trailer is sabotaging its own reason for being. At the same time, though, how will you know if a movie’s for you if you don’t at least do a little bit of research?
13 Tzameti takes the whole “less is better” notion one step further—if you know anything at all about it before you go in, it will lose some impact. True to form, its own trailer—which admittedly does do a good job of accurately portraying the intensity of the actual movie, something trailers rarely do these days—reveals too much. It’s a slippery slope, I suppose, because without marketing, all you would have is an incredibly shocking movie that no one watches, and what good is that?
On the other hand, to know the main theme of 13 Tzameti is to at least partially deprive yourself of a mysterious journey. Now I’m not here to pretend that it will ruin the entire experience for you, because this is still an intense, often utterly effective film. But if you can somehow find a way to ignore everything ever written about it—including this very review--and just go in to a showing as blind and oblivious as possible, then that will help to give the film even more depth, as you slowly learn everything as the main character learns it. That would make everything even more shocking and worthwhile in the long run.
However, for those that want the typical experience—to research it and “feel it out” to see if it might be right for them—I will still offer a spoiler-free introduction to the film. Sebastian is an immigrant who works construction jobs to support his poor family. He takes a roofing job from Jean-Francois Godon, only to overhear Godon telling an associate that he is not sure how he will pay Sebastian his advance, much less the whole sum.
The situation gets even murkier when he takes an overdose of morphine and passes away—his widow informs Sebastian that she can’t pay him, and wants work on the roof halted immediately. He then overhears her talking to a family friend about a mysterious job that Godon accepted close to his death, and the instructions, as well as a train ticket, are contained in an envelope at the house. Feeling (correctly) he has been taken advantage of, he takes the envelope and hopes that it will lead him to enough quick cash to cover the amount he is owed.
Before long, and after jumping through several hoops, he ends up at a secluded house in the middle of a forest. The people there immediately know that he’s not who he claims to be, but that doesn’t stop them from using him as a pawn in a mysterious event. It all leads up to an ending that, given the rest of the film’s cynical tone, should shock no one, although it does add yet another layer of bleakness to a film that certainly wasn’t bereft of that to begin with.
Whether or not you “like” 13 Tzameti will pretty much hinge on what you feel of the entire second act; to me, it really made it feel like a one-trick pony. Its underlying theme—how far would people go to “get rich quick”—almost functions as the most basic of all “social commentary” “statements”, so it doesn’t really have much to say beyond what you can already tell from the surface. In other words, it’s not really complex enough to warrant any kind of replay factor; I can’t imagine anyone missing anything the first time.
That being said, the film’s brilliant use of black and white photography really makes this film “pop” in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible in color. Even though the film is surprisingly saturated in light (I would have expected some of the darker scenes to feature more shadows, but that isn’t the case), this aesthetic really carries the film farther than it probably should go, and is the main reason for the overall score. There is also an undeniable intensity, at least for the first time you watch it, so expect certain scenes to stay with you for a while. However, I must admit that rewatching it wasn’t nearly as tense, and actually eroded away part of the sharp tension that I remembered.
Note that the same director, Gela Babluani, also remade this film a couple of years later—in color, no less, and with a semi-all star Hollywood cast (including 50 Cent…lol)—to absolutely abysmal reviews. And just like that, a potentially solid career in film came to an abrupt end. Hopefully he will rebound in the future, because, despite all the unevenness, 13 Tzameti certainly proves that he has some talent to burn.
RECAP: A second viewing shows that you really don’t have a need to watch 13 Tzameti more than once, but man is that first watch a doozy. This is an often intense, bleak picture, that builds up to a violent, but not entirely unforeseen, ending. It does feel a little one-note, with its main statement (how far would people go to “get rich quick”) pretty amateurish and overplayed already, and the first and third acts relatively boring by comparison. The black and white cinematography is inspired, and gives the film a certain draw that would not have been possible in color. If you want a good movie that you won’t want to watch (and shouldn’t) more than once, this should be your ticket.
RATING: 7/10
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