Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

13 TZAMETI
Directed, Produced & Written by: Gela Babluani.
Director of Photography: Tariel Meliava.
Edited by: Noémie Moreau.
Music by: East (Troublemakers).
Released by: Palm Pictures.
Language: French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France/Republic of Georgia. 90 min. Not Rated.
With: Georges Babluani, Aurélien Recoing, Pascal Bongard, Fred Ulysse, Philippe Passon, Nicolas Pignon & Vania Vilers.

Possibly the most tense work of nihilistic European cinema this year, Gela Babluani’s directorial debut unfolds without much complexity but with enough ambiguity early on to make an impact midway through. Georgian immigrant and handyman Sebastien (the director’s brother, George Balbuani) discovers his client, the moneyed Jean-François (Philippe Passon), has killed himself in his bathtub from an overdose. Perhaps for money for his immigrant family, or possibly just curiosity, Sebastien absconds with a letter left for Jean- François and follows its cryptic directions, which lead him across France by train, unknowingly tailed by the police, to an isolated mansion in the dark woods. Like Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut, Sebastien is the intrigued outsider but eventual engrossed participant, but here in a lethal contest: rich men bet thousands on who will die, or kill, in three rounds where 13 contestants have to load up one gun a piece and fire it at the other’s head in a domino-type of circle. The macabre game becomes the film’s centerpiece, where alcohol and morphine get slammed down and shot up in-between rounds. The winner-take-all contest is less the issue than the participants – both the volunteer killers and the on-lookers bring on an unnerving sense of doom, pervading the film up until the end.

Gela Balbuani has probably seen more than few noirs from the 1950s, but his work here also makes for other comparisons as well. 13 Tzameti has that air of misfortune and a detached, almost cold despair like a Jean-Pierre Melville film. There is also the element, from Melville, of characters who “do” more than talk, as the slightest or most obvious expressions tell everything we as the audience need to know. But Babluani’s subject matter is a lot closer to that of at least a few cult films as of late that have a gimmick for a story that is taken very seriously. But unlike David Fincher’s The Game, where the stylistic flair is part of the artificial nature of the movie, or Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale where the nihilism is so over the top it becomes comical, 13 Tzameti is shot in stark, gritty black and white. This is not simply done for the filmmaker to get in his "old-school" kicks from those hard-boiled noirs from America and France.

The logic behind the technical style, along with the extreme close-ups and high-angle shots in the competition sequences, creates a world devoid of humor, a tone completely sustained throughout the film. On top of this, there is only occasional musical accompaniment. Georges Balbuani particularly has a lot to carry as Sebastien, going from a contemplative observer to being traumatized, finally becoming something like the walking dead. For a first-time performance under a first-time director, it’s a turn that reminds me (speaking of French films from days gone by) of a Jean-Pierre Léaud, with a face and demeanor that can only hide so much before the emotional toll finally comes through.

13 Tzameti is an uncompromising and merciless film with a violent and cold heart, where the fates are against all involved in the game. That it won’t be for everyone is not a surprise, as it leaves little hope for any of the characters and because of the extreme and crude nature of the game itself. But it has an appeal that might someday make it into a cult movie, and it’s got a psychological edge that has me already ready to watch it again. Jack Gattanella
July 28, 2006