13 Tzameti (2007) meets Hostel with little gore, but a lot of sophistication. Directed by Gela Babluani, the story revolves around Sebastian (Georges Babluani), the main supporter of his immigrant family, who struggle to survive in a small French town. He works as a handyman of a gentleman named Jean-Francois Godon (Philippe Passon). While fixing the roof, Sebastian overhears a conversation between Jean-Francois and his wife, Madame Godon (Olga Legrand), that he is expecting a package that holds promise to obtain a lot of money. While Jean-Francois leaves to take a bath, Madame Godon takes a look at the letter and sees a paid hotel bill and a ticket for a train to Paris. Realizing that he was not joking, she is startled as she sees water coming out of the bathroom. Unable to open the door, she calls on Sebastian for help.
Sebastian runs quickly to the bathroom and breaks the door down finding Jean-Francois dead of an overdose. With Jean-Francois dead, leaving no one to pay him for his labor, Sebastian eventually leaves, but as luck would have it, he discovers the letter had been blown outside. Seizing the opportunity that he could obtain a fortune, he takes it and follows the instructions. They lead him to Paris locker room where he finds another package containing more instructions and a small card with a number thirteen printed on it.
Another set of instructions tells Sebastian to take a taxi to a wooded area and to get out and wait. Soon a black car pulls up with a bearded figure driving who holds up another card bearing the number thirteen. Sebastian reveals his card and waved over to the car. He gets inside the car and is taken to a building deep inside the woods.
Once inside, Sebastian is introduced to a world that few people see or survive. The building is filled with one group of men that are dressed in suits and another group of men who are dressed in pants and grey shirts with large numbers printed on their backs. Sebastian is quickly taken to a room where an older gentleman comes in and looks suspiciously at him. He asks who he is and where is Jean-Francois. Sebastian quickly informs the man of Jean-Francois' recent demise. Reluctantly, the man accepts him as his “player” and Sebastian quickly finds out what it all means to value your life in a Russian Roulette-style game where only one man can survive to win it all.
Filmed in black and white, 13 Tzameti is a gritty, hold-on-to-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller. It is tense from beginning to end. Babluani was very smart by filming it in black and white because you can see the intensity building within the actors more clearly than you would in color. Hostel was the same way, but with 13 Tzameti you do not have the gore. You have the sophistication of seeing the workings of an underground group of gamblers who take bets on different “players” to see who will win each round. Whereas in Hostel you see their group “purchase” their man or woman and they can do whatever their perverted desires' wants.
The only down points of the film is you get lost in the beginning of the film in trying to figure out what is going on in the main plot. It can be slow at times, from trying to put point A and point B together. There are characters that have small roles you have a hard time seeing how they fit into the plot if they do have a role.
The story is not what it seems though. I personally was expecting something else entirely by the middle of the film, but was taken aback by the twists. They let you see a darker side of humanity within the “game” which leads to a very ironic and twisted ending. Unlike Hostel, it is not a happy ending.
I would recommend this film if you definitely have a love for international thrillers and twists and turns.