13 Tzameti is a really interesting film for several reasons. It is a modern take on the film noir genre. But in addition to the usual red herring and mcguffins that fill film noir, this movie has borrowings from Kafka. It is a very interesting movie that deserves more than just the word of mouth praise and festival circuit showing that it has gotten.
Director and writer, Gela Babluani is himself an immigrant to France from Georgia, the eastern European country not the southern state, and combines both the film legacy of France with an outsider’s view of the country to really make this thriller special. It was a smart move to film this movie in black and white, although that may have been a purely budgetary decision. It is very crisply photographed and reminded me of why black and white films really stand out over color when they are done right.
George Babluani, the director’s brother, stars in the movie as Sebastian, a poor immigrant day worker struggling to help his family make ends meet. He starts out working on the roof of an older man’s house in a rundown, seaside town. The man, Godon (played by Philippe Passon), don’t have the money to pay Sebastian. Instead he promises that he will have a way to make a lot of money very soon and will pay the young man out of that. Soon afterward, a letter arrives for Godon and the older man kills himself by overdosing. Sebastian sees his chance and steals the letter.
The police who have been watching Godon’s house and his friends become suspicious of Sebastian and begin to follow him. Sebastian follows the cryptic instructions of the letter and manages to dodge the police in the process.
Once he meets his employers he learns that he has gotten himself into a competition where he must kill others or be killed himself, while his sponsors and others bet on the outcomes of these high stakes, multiplayer version of Russian Roulette. He cannot get away from the duels without the people running the show and his own reluctant sponsors killing him. He isn’t sure of the rules and isn’t sure if he will ever make it out alive. The casual cruelty of the game is shocking not only to Sebastian, but to many of the other players in the game.
The movie is shot and plotted in a fairly realistic style, which like the best Kafka stories, starts out in unambiguously safe territory. Like Kafka and Hitchcock, Babluani’s movie slowly ratchets up the tension with subtle hints of danger until Sebastian is in too deep to turn back. This movie is like the best of fairy tales, the most innocent of objects, a letter, entreats him into the dark forest where dangers he never imagined lie in wait. Once he leaves his town, almost none of the characters he meets reveal their names. Even the police, who might in other circumstances be thought to provide safety, exude menace.
The movie plays with the idea of thrusting Sebastian, who although he refuses to admit it, starts out trapped in the social and economic position in the town and how that societal trap spring on him in the real trap that he falls for on the lure of easy money. Like the character the view feels trapped by his circumstances and can only hope that he will find a way out of the problems that beset him on all sides.
Gela Babluani is remaking this movie. I always think that it is a poor choice when directors decide to remake their first movies with bigger budgets. Let’s hope that if more people do see that version some will be inspired to look for the original.