Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

jzappa Gela Babluani, who at just 26 years old already knows more about suspense than many filmmakers absorb in whole careers, creates a fear so profound, a nightmare so believable that its talons rip into your perception. 13 Tzameti is elegantly minimal, and remarkably hard-hitting, and its monochromatic look at a cast of captivating, case-hardened mugs make it unbearable not to watch, even when proceedings grow nigh on unbearable.Georges Babluani, indeed the director's brother, plays young Georgian immigrant worker Sébastien, who is living in France and working construction jobs to sustain his destitute family. Working on the home of a man named Godon, he learns that he's a frail morphine addict, and is under police surveillance. Godon's overdose turns all of Sebastien's toiling into a waste, so when he overhears the widow furtively discussing an enigmatic "job" meant for her husband, desperate Sébastien filches the instructions for obtaining the mysterious position. The instructions are a crafty manner of evading the police. Sebastien is about to wish he didn't follow those instructions.Establishing himself with a muted eye and a smart ear, Gela has fashioned a film in three acts and while his exposition is intriguing and location striking, it's the innermost act that is laden with taut pressure, an astounding set piece that will hold spellbound any moviegoer willing to give it a chance. The composure in the work of both Babluani brothers is uncannily subdued and ripe, already free of the urge to show off, and works no more than to congeal the terror. Dialogue is short and curt, personalities deferential to plot, character names of such irrelevance that most do not in fact have evident ones while others are distinguished by purpose or by numbers on clammy T-shirts, or by a broken nose, a cane-aided hobble, an unpleasant gastrointestinal issue or a bespectacled slightness. And one would be negligent not to note the exceptionally good suspense thriller score by The Troublemakers, piano, flute and cymbals flitting about a Middle Eastern theme.The film's minimalism and force are ministered to by the bracing black-and-white cinematography of Tariel Meliava, which gives the work a noir look suggestive of the 1940s but with a ferment that is utterly new millennium. Indeed, this beautiful testosterone nightmare is a film thick with distinctive male faces, skillfully composed in black and white close-ups, like Diane Arbus subjects. We do get momentary sensations of character from some of these supporting players, like Aurélien Recoing's brutal Jacky and Vania Vilers' untamed Mr. Schlondorff. Also vibrant are men who back them, like Sébastien's sponsor Alain, all cultured cravat and tweed jacket, and a frenzied, panting gambler who would've been a Peter Lorre character in noir's halcyon days. Less a character than a device, Pascal Bongard is indelible as a delirious master of ceremonies, and helps power the anxiety with his roared announcements.Unlike so many low-budget debuts, 13 Tzameti is filled with genuine behavior on screen. The performances are all active and dynamic rather than static, sensory and specific instead of general. It's made on a shoestring by a bare-knuckle beginner, and it's a smart, austere film noir where men either have little hope or so much money it has warped their souls, though that is no reading of the film. It's purely experiential, which is why it's so effective. It has no superficial moralizing, and that detachment, with the underpinning of restrained formality in enterprising technique, makes for a gripping film to say the least.

Roger Burke The fundamental requirement for a good story is that it's believable. Get past that hurdle, and viewers will forgive many, perhaps most other aspects of the film. Even movies with complete unknown actors – as in this, 13 Tzameti – suffer nothing, provided there is a believable story. The stark B/W photography works brilliantly, especially for this viewer, evoking murky and sinister plots of yester-year: Reservoir Dogs (1992) and The Asphalt Jungle (1950) come to mind – other exercises in men who get in too deep for their own good...And 13 Tzameti is exclusively about men; and what they do; with and to each other, in secret; for money.So, the plot begins development of that idea as we meet a young handy-man type worker who, quite by chance – a gust of wind, in fact – stumbles upon an opportunity to lift himself out of grinding poverty and "make a bundle", as many like to say; almost like a gift-horse, so to speak. The catch, for the young man, Sebastian (George Babluani) is this: he doesn't know what the "job" is; nor does he know anything about what he's getting into when he uses the train ticket he finds in the envelope brought to him by that fateful wind.Hence, there is a relatively long, but crucial, setup before Sebastian gets on that train – a bit more than the usual twenty minutes I like to allow before I begin to squirm in my seat. This story is worth the wait, however. Because what he discovers and what he experiences is akin to the worst kind of horror you ever can imagine: like a nightmare from which you just cannot awaken – something most of us have experienced in our worst nights of delirium.Bring that into the light of day and you then stay riveted to your seat, your gaze glued to the screen, the tension within your body rising as the suspense builds almost unbearably while the utterly gruesome events of this story inexorably unfold as they must. Only that consummate horror writer, the late Roald Dahl, with some of his outstandingly unbearable stories, comes close to what the viewer sees – and can't take eyes off – in this film. In that regard, the horror contained in Audition (1999), a film I have reviewed here, is an apt comparison.Don't be repelled by my use of 'gruesome': overall, there is very little graphic violence from this first-time director. He directs and uses the camera so well, he leaves it mostly up to your own mind to make it all the worse for you. Others might point to some of the clichéd camera angles used as worthy of criticism; no worse than Tarantino's, in my opinion.What is truly repellent, though, are the characters that Sebastien meets and with whom he must deal. Arguably, even the good guys are bad – just not quite as bad as the totally degenerate bunch that dominates this story. And, this bunch of actors is picture and word perfect for their roles.Sebasten is only twenty-two; and growing up is hard to do, as we all know. So, it's fitting, I think, that this story can also be taken as an allegory for the journey we all make through life – never knowing, from one day to the next, what lies ahead. But, we press on, hoping, always hoping that things will turn out okay…that dreams can come true. Well, today is that next day for Sebastien.Wouldn't you like to join him as he moves bravely forward, eyes wide shut, into the unknown?Highly recommended - but not for the faint-hearted.

JoeytheBrit This moody little French film has, at its core, a good commercial idea but for me, the manner in which it is told is all wrong. Shot in gloomy black-and-white (presumably to add to the bleakness of the tale rather than economic necessity because surely black-and-white film must be more expensive to process than colour these days) the film struggles to get the viewer on the side of the young protagonist and therefore struggles to develop the element of suspense it needs to be a success.A roofer working on a beach-side house, finds an envelope containing a train ticket and hotel room number lost by his employer, who has just overdosed on heroin. Learning that he won't get paid as a result, and having previously overheard the dead guy say he was waiting for the envelope because he would earn a lot of money from it, our young hero decides to find out where the train ticket will lead him. After following a convoluted set of instructions he discovers he has stumbled into a nightmarish situation from which there is only one possibility of escape.I won't go into too much detail about the tournament that our hero chances upon, but I'm pretty sure that was the single image in the writer's head when he started writing and that everything else developed around that central idea of thirteen men in a room. If I'm right, that might go some way to explaining why I felt so uninvolved with what was going on. Although it's a good half-hour (at least) before anything really happens, little attempt seems to have been made to allow us to get to know the (nominal) hero, and his reasons for pursuing a potentially perilous mission just don't ring true.Everything is very low-key and downbeat, a technique which really should heighten the tension and the horror of the situation, but which just leaves everything feeling flat. The young guy in the lead is fairly convincing and plays his part well, and there are some wonderfully weather-beaten faces on display throughout, but everything seems a little bit, well, pointless – with no message imparted and an unnecessarily depressing ending.

kausix777 While this is a simple story of behind-the scenes crime and gambling, it required above average acting for it to work. The actors do not disappoint. While the lead actor is excellent, just about everyone including the "brothers", the master of "ceremonies", bring out multiple facets of the characters in an unbelievably watchable way.The tension and relief are quite visible on most faces on consequent occasions - but the tension and relief are different for the different characters. This was the challenge for the actors and they have excelled.In order to truly appreciate the movie, one must be 1. mature. 2. able to imagine oneself as the different characters.