As "Athena" (2022 release from France; 99 min) opens, a guy of Algerian descent announces at a police station that his younger brother, just 13 yo, has died resulting from police brutality, and that the police is investigating who is responsible. The guy urges for calm. But before we know it, someone throws a Molotov cocktail into the police station, and it sets into motion the looting of the police station... At this point we are less than 10 min into the movie.
Couple of comments: this is the latest from French director Romain Gavros, best known for shooting edgy music videos. Here Gavros brings the fictional tale of a suburban (filmed in a Paris banlieue) uprising following yet another instance of police brutality. While fictional, it feels all too familiar of course. Heads up: the opening sequence that lasts about 10 minutes is insanely intense, and... brought in a single take. In fact the long takes are a recurring feature in the film (I honestly don't know how some of these shots are even possible). The movie's tension is palpable from the get-go and really doesn't let up. The no-names cast is quite good, in particular the main character Abdel, played by French-Algerian actor Dali Bensallah. Bottom line: this revenge crime drama grabbed my attention from start to finish. But if intensive and over the top violence is not your thing, better stay away.
"Athena" premiered earlier this month at the Venice film festival to positive buzz. It started airing on Netflix this weekend. After seeing a positive write-up in Friday's New York Times, I just had to check it out. Glad I did. If you are in the mood for a very intense revenge crime drama set in a French banlieue, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.
