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Film: The Devil's Rock
Year of production: 2011
UK Release date: 11th July 2011
Distributor: Metrodome
Certificate: 18
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Paul Campion
Starring: Gina Varela, Karlos Drinkwater, Craig Hall, Matthew Sunderland
Genre: Action/Drama/Fantasy/Horror/Thriller/War
Format: DVD
Country of Production: New Zealand
Language: English
Review by: Daryl Wing
First time director Paul Campion is best known for his work as a visual effects artist on classic trilogies Lord Of The Rings and The Chronicles Of Narnia, as well as the outstanding Sin City and Greek legends dud Clash Of The Titans. It surely bodes well for his first feature-length, a war-torn horror, whetting the appetite for gory mayhem galore. But has Campion got what it takes to step up a level, or will The Devil’s Rock be bowed down beneath a burden akin to Greek Titan Atlas after rebelling against Zeus?
It’s the eve of D-Day and allied commandos are carrying out sabotage raids on the German occupied Channel Islands to draw attention away from Normandy.
On Forau Island, two New Zealand comrades, Captain Ben Grogan (Craig Hall) and Sergeant Joe Tane (Karlos Drinkwater) have been sent to destroy gun replacements, but after negotiating a tricky route to their target a woman’s screams lure them into an isolated fortress.
It’s here they discover the attractive female Helena (Gina Varela), held captive by rusty chains, surrounded by mutilated bodies, and after resistance from Colonel Klaus Meyer (Matthew Sunderland), Grogan has to decide whether he’ll help the girl escape the island or stop a Nazi occult plot to unleash demonic forces in order to win the war…
Campion’s The Devil’s Rock is an engaging, neatly constructed horror whose conventionality is never endangered by the supernatural violence it could depict – dismembered bodies may be strewn across the blood-stained floors, while others (one in particular has a rifle rammed down its throat) are slumped across the walls coated in vital fluid, but, for the most part, the horrors are hidden away like the devil herself.
This could’ve been a grimy, torture-porn tribute to films like Saw, albeit on a smaller budget, so it’s nice to report that the blunt savagery has been replaced by subtle bloodshed (for the most part), characterization and excellent performances from our two male leads. Sunderland, as the sly Colonel Meyer, is the standout, with his “we’re both in the same s**t” persona managing to convince Hall’s Grogan that it’s best if they stick together. The Grogan character is let down by his indecisiveness - all too often it gets him into far too much trouble, and his inability to think rationally questions how he has been so well-rewarded career-wise, let alone stay alive.
The opening, which sees Grogan and comrade Sergeant Tane (a sadly underused Karlos Drinkwater) looking to destroy gun replacements, impresses with its washed-out visuals and tense plotting fused with deliciously entertaining dialogue that adds artful back-story to a gripping preamble. Add to that a tense crawl through the fortress, one scene shocking with its unseen brutality, and a neat standoff between our two foes means that the opening act genuinely zips by with frequent flutters of excitement. Even the slightly talky second act has enough good moments to enjoy, but this all depends on whether or not the viewer can suspend disbelief and accept a twist that may turn The Devil’s Rock into a bit of a farce.
Campion certainly tries his best to restore some of its early protocol with Meyer delivering a few lines that throw us back on track; the majority of viewers hopefully convinced by now that the devil can rip its victim apart by becoming the someone they thought was the love of their life, but Grogan will still have you screaming at the screen for his inability to trust a Nazi over his dead wife, no matter how many times Meyer utters “fairytale bulls**t.” The other major bugbear is a revelation that would allow for easy escape, and yet, once again, the auteur cleverly persuades us to believe that there’s little point in flying the waters when the biggest weapon of all is unable to.
Before all this, though, is a cheekily dramatic awakening and one of the finest removing-a-bullet scenes in the history of bullet-removing scenes you’ll ever witness. You’ll still be questioning whether Grogan is just happy to hear his slaughtered spouse’s voice after all these years, though, but to be fair, she sounds a hell of a lot better than the camp, almost laughable powers of articulation of the real villain of the piece – a tranny-she-devil that disappoints far more than it delivers – hardly a devil to die for, whether it’s a lesser demon or not.
Still, she’s more exciting than the lengthy setting up of a ritual, which basically involves drawing circles with chalk while our antagonist struggles to break down the door keeping her from her next meal. Luckily, the final act finally reawakens along with one of the diseased in a genuinely hilarious moment of madness, even if the zombie comes across more drunk than dangerous, and a fine act of betrayal once again disguises Grogan’s implausible anguish.
Gina Varela is finally able to tease us after a stuttering performance, hindered by her unholy, and unfrightening true self, including daft dialogue such as “you b**tard son of Adam” that hardly delivers the chills such a villain warrants – maybe Campion’s script (co-written with Paul Finch) would’ve been more provocative if he had worked as a visual effects artist on The Exorcist rather than Eragon. Having said that, the rivetingly repellent effects on show here are reason enough to watch.
Despite a devil who would certainly prefer to wear Prada, The Devil's Rock is a promising start for first-time director Paul Campion. With some good performances, plentiful gore, and an intriguing premise that throws up enough surprises, it whets the appetite for future projects. This could do for Campion what Dog Soldiers did for Marshall.
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Film: Lilya 4-Ever
Release date: 22nd September 2003
Certificate: 18
Running time: 109 mins
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky, Lyubov Agapova, Liliya Shinkaryova, Elina Benenson
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Sweden/Denmark
Lilya 4-Ever is the third film from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, and is the story of one girl’s belief that she is destined for happiness within an area of the former Soviet Union where the prospect of prostitution and sex trafficking are forever looming. The narrative of a girl's descent into prostitution may be a clichéd narrative of world cinema but it doesn't stop Lilya 4-Ever from being all the more harrowing.
Opening to the sound of industrial death metal, we are introduced to Lilya (played by Oksana Akinshina), who wanders bruised and disorientated, lost and alone, in a foreign city. Coming across a bridge, she prepares to jump off onto the busy highway below in an act of suicide. Fading to black, the film resumes three months earlier in the former Soviet Union to an impoverished area of Estonia.
Lilya is elated at the prospect of moving to America with her mother and her new ‘boyfriend’. Unfortunately, after a family meeting, it transpires that the mother is to move off to the US without Lilya, who will be left under the care of a cruel and seemingly uncaring aunt. Left on her own, Lilya is forced into coming up with a way to support herself, which comes in the form of prostitution.
Forming a friendship with Volodya, a local boy and son of an abusive alcoholic father, Lilya manages to maintain her composure as she makes enough money to live independently. After forming a relationship with a Swedish gentleman, Lilya is asked to move to Sweden with him. It seems as if her dreams are finally becoming true…
From the harrowing opening sequence, it is clear that Lilya 4-Ever is not going to be an easy film to watch. The film is based on real-life events where 16 year old Danguole Rasalaite jumped off a bridge after being transported from her home in Lithuania to Sweden under the allusion that she was going to have a job, but in reality was pimped out and sexually abused upon a daily basis. She died three days later after jumping, and her story was pieced together by three letters she was carrying at the time.
For director Lukas Moodysson, it marks a startling change. His debut film, Show Me Love, out grossed Titanic at the box office in his native Sweden, and his last picture, Together, was an oddball hippy comedy of sorts with dark satirical undertones. By contrast, Lilya 4-Ever is a fairytale set within a gritty urban area. There are monsters and angels, an evil aunt, a loyal and dependable friend, and even a handsome prince. Lilya is effectively a princess who believes unquestionably in this narrative that her luck is destined to change, dreaming that her prince charming will come and whisk her far away from the misery that surrounds her. It will, of course, lead to her downfall, and the audience knows this, but the film’s predictability only adds to its tragedy.
The more innocent scenes between Lilya and Volodya form the core of the story and feel reminiscent of the character interactions seen in the films of Shane Meadows and Ken Loach. That is, two characters living in impoverishment but still finding happiness in their lives through their friendship. Lilya herself played by Oksana Akinshina can, at times, appear to be a spoiled brat, as she flaunts her success in the faces of friends and neighbours, and you can sometimes forget that she is just a kid.
Next to the Millennium trilogy, however, Lilya 4-Ever illuminates Sweden’s misogynist undercurrents. Less critical, and more an outright condemnation, Moodysson is on the warpath against his native homeland on this front. Sometimes, the film feels as if it is going too far - the film’s Ramstein opening, for example, is a particularly bombastical approach (you may ask why a Swedish film would open to German death metal). Though it does add an element of confusion, you do wonder how Lilya would have any conception of this kind of music.
The ugliest moments of the movie come in the form of a series of montage sequences, in which we witness, from Lilya’s perspective, a parade of older men raping her. The sheer number of men is sickening, the whole experience invasive and completely without passion, like the audience is being raped themselves. It is no understatement to say that these scenes may just be enough to put you off sex for life. Even after the film has finished, these sequences will linger, as you realize that someone somewhere on this planet will be experiencing this horror for real.
Lilya 4-Ever, is not for the faint of heart. Though there are moments of tenderness to balance the unremitting horror and overwhelming sense of hopelessness, the film is very angry, and as Lilya is buoyed on by delusional dreams is to the audience’s own distress. It is certainly a hard film to recommend, as any film that deals with child prostitution will be, but then this is a subject that cannot be left out of minds. CPH
Film: Pusher
Release date: 24th July 2000
Certificate: 18
Running time: 105 mins
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Kim Bodnia, Zlatko Buric, Laura Drasbæk, Slavko Labovic, Mads Mikkelsen
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Denmark
All too often when referring to crime films, words like gritty or raw get used to describe what usually turns out to be nothing of the sort. For the especially low-down-and-dirty forays into the underworld, we are even treated to words like grimy and uncompromising. The Brit-crime thriller seems to have cornered the market in this area, but we needn’t travel too far to find a film that truly embodies these tags.
Frank is a small-time dealer in Copenhagen who, along with his buddy, Tonny, deals heroin for boss Milo. When Milo supplies a large amount of heroin to Frank to sell to an old friend from jail, Frank agrees to bring his money within two hours.
With the deal about to go through, the police show up, and Frank disposes of the heroin. Taken into custody, but released soon after, Frank must get Milo the money he promised in two days. But Frank will have to travel to hell to raise the cash, and he’ll have to test himself to the very limit…
Pusher is the debut of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, known to English speaking audiences for Bronson and Valhalla Rising. It is a no-frills tale of a true criminal, unrepentant, and yet fascinating to follow in his descent into the hellish depths of the Copenhagen underworld. Refn uses hand-held cameras to literally follow the characters around, as though we were seeing an observational documentary, such is the level that we get drawn in to the action. This approach might seem a little well worn, and the gritty street-level drama of petty criminals and drug dealers is a path we’ve walked before. There is more than a hint of Mean Streets about this film, but to its credit, Pusher manages to feel new and exciting, largely down to the truly superb cast, and a director who gets the best from them.
In the central role of Frank, Kim Bodnia delivers a captivating performance, simmering with tension. From the very start, we are aware that Frank is an unlikeable character. He’s a drug dealer, his treatment of women is disrespectful at best, and his main concern in life is money and having a good time. He is also a man who rarely succumbs to his emotions, preferring instead to be cool and calculating. It would be easy for such a character to lack charisma, but Bodnia portrays Frank, and his descent, with such devotion and moral ambiguity that we are hooked. The release of emotion comes too rarely for Frank, and we are left watching a lit fuse that is a constant threat. So strong is the incendiary threat that we are unable to tear our gaze from him whenever he is on screen. This performance of hidden intensity gives Pusher another level, beyond the limitations of the genre. When we do see Frank commit acts of violence, it is ugly and brutal, but it happens so rarely that the film is carried along simply by the threat that Frank could at any minute completely break down, and it is all the more effective for it. The crumbling of Frank’s world leads him down a road that there is no returning from, and Bodnia’s portrayal is compelling enough to make us follow him there.
Bodnia’s performance is not the only standout. The supporting cast are uniformly excellent, and populate the bleak canvas with unforgettable characters. Zlato Buric, as crime boss Milo, gives an entertaining performance, luring us in with his likable drawl, laid-back posture and bad cooking, before showing us his true sociopathic colours. Mads Mikkelsen, as the unpredictable Tonny, could easily have turned the character into a genre stereotype, but instead brings him vividly to life. Finally, Laura Drasbaek as the beautiful but tormented Vic is superb, and brings real pathos to what could have been a thankless and cosmetic part.
On the surface, it wouldn’t appear that there is much to like about Pusher, but the characters are so well written and multi-faceted that it doesn’t take much effort on our part to see that there is more beneath the obvious genre clichés. Too often audiences are force fed a story of redemption to sweeten the bitterness of the preceding events, but not here. Here we are shown unrepentant characters, caught up in their own worlds, and the consequences when these worlds are at odds with each other. The final shot of Frank does not show a man regretting the life he has led, but instead accepting the inevitable conclusion his life has led him to. Despite several clues as to what will happen to Frank, the film abruptly ends, leaving us with a similar feeling of acceptance.
Not content with wrapping things up neatly, Pusher ends much as it began, without frills or ceremony. By leaving the characters arcs unfinished, Refn has ensured that Pusher lives on beyond the end credits, and our descent into the depths of criminality is a journey that we are not able to forget easily.
Gritty, grimy, grisly, raw, uncompromising; take your pick. Pusher is a powerful piece of filmmaking that doesn’t deserve to be tagged so simply. It gives us the sort of undiluted look at criminal life that we rarely get to see in other films. Simply shot and compellingly performed, it deserves serious attention, and to be ranked alongside the likes of Mean Streets. RM
This is an English-language release.
Slovak filmmaker Juraj Jakubisko directs this historical drama based on the legend of 16th-century Hungarian Countess, Elizabeth Bathory.
Bathory, who became famous for supposedly bathing in the blood of virgins in a bid to preserve her youth and beauty, has even been included in the Guinness Book of Records as being the most prolific mass murderer in history. Jakubisko's film, however, offers a sympathetic portrayal of the Countess, showing her at the mercy of the scheming politicians and courtiers around her.
Film: Bathory: Countess Of Blood
Release date: 7th March 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 140 mins
Director: Juraj Jakubisko
Starring: Anna Friel, Hans Matheson, Karel Roden, Franco Nero, Bolek Polívka
Genre: Drama/Fantasy/History
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Slovakia/Czech Republic/UK/Hungary
Film: Paradox Soldiers
Release date: 21st February 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Oleg Pogodin & Dmitri Voronkov
Starring: Aleksei Barabash, Semyon Belotserkovskiy, Dmitri Dyachuk, Ekaterina Klimova, Ivan Krasko
Genre: Action/Drama/Sci-Fi/War
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Russia
In this follow up to director Oleg Pogodin’s 2008 time travelling/war movie crossover, We Are The Future, four modern day citizens of the former USSR gain a closer understanding of the nature of war than they had bargained for.
The film is set in the Ukraine, at the site of the Battle of Brody, a fight which proved to be pivotal to the Russian struggle to push back the German forces along the eastern front. The battle took place between the Red Army and divisions of the German army, including an SS unit, who were comprised mainly of Ukrainian volunteers. Representatives from St Petersburg and Kiev arrive to participate in a re-enactment of the battle, with the Ukrainians taking the part of the volunteers who had fought for the Germans.
Of the four morally unscrupulous treasure hunters from Pogodin’s first film, only two make their reappearance in Paradox Soldiers. Sergei Filatov is now a sensitive professor of history, while Oleg Vasil’ev has grown out his skinhead but retains his air of oafish stupidity. These two join the re-enactment as members of the Red Army, rapidly coming into real-life conflict with two of the Ukrainian volunteers. Taras is arrogant and scornful of the Russians’ attitude of reverence towards the sacrifices made during the war, and Serji is a spoilt, cowardly mummy’s boy with a moptop haircut, dependent on Taras to protect him.
When the first night of the students’ encampment is marked by a death metal concert and a punch up, historical enlightenment seems off the agenda. But a freak accident throws our four heroes together, as they find themselves blasted fifty years back into the past, having to adapt and survive to escape imprisonment or death at the hands of the Ukrainian Paramilitary Army, the Germans and the Russians…
From this point, events move quickly and towards a predictable moral outcome. The Russians and Ukrainians must overcome their mutual antagonism in order to survive, and a genuine comradeship emerges between them. If this all sounds reminiscent of a boy’s own ripping yarn or a PS2 game, depending on your age, then that’s not too far from the truth. The climactic scene of the characters’ propulsion into the past is devised as a flame filled, bullet time explosion, honing in on the ominously loud ticking of Filatov’s wristwatch, in case any of us were too slow to pick up on the dramatic implication of the scene. Rock music soundtracks the action, from the four companions’ headlong flight through the forest from the Germans to their madcap assault on a strategically important building. There is a genuine sense of tension and excitement in many scenes.
But the tone of the film fluctuates so wildly that it’s hard to know how seriously we’re meant to take any of this. This unevenness is reflected in the various characters. Filatov broods mournfully upon Nina, a beautiful nurse from the Russian medical corps. Without the back-story of the first film, it’s hard to gauge the source of this obsession, and when Nina makes an appearance, sporting an awful lot of eyeliner for a battlefield, her simpering is an incongruous object for Filatov’s soulful devotion.
Aleksei Barabash gives a powerful performance as the belligerent Taras. In his opening scenes, he seems to be merely an arrogant thug, but once transposed to the arena of the real war, he quickly – so quickly as to be rather mystifying – shows himself to be thoughtful, quick-witted and courageous. Lumbering Oleg is so dense that when Taras tells a suspicious Russian commander that Oleg’s taciturnity is the result of concussion, it doesn’t require any acting to overcome the commander’s scepticism. But when tested in conflict, Oleg displays strength and almost suicidal loyalty, like the faithful horse Boxer in Animal Farm, providing the brawn to Filatov’s brain. The weedy Stupka also undergoes a predictable transformation. His clownishness adds humour – when escaping the Germans, he asks, “What will I tell my mum? She hasn’t even been born yet.” In the end, he also discovers a previously unsuspected inner mettle, and stands alongside his comrades as they take up arms in the heat of the battle.
There is a strange disconnection between the puerile behaviour of the characters – with the exception of Filatov - in the modern day and the depth of character they display during the scenes in 1944. And no folks, this isn’t just because they’ve learnt a valuable lesson during their time travelling escapades. Without giving anything away, the asinine cheesiness of the final section, complete with air punching and yet more simpering, brings the film’s rating down a notch all by itself.
It’s hard to know what the creators of Paradox Soldiers were aiming for. Barabash and Petrenko bring gravitas to their roles, and there is undoubted technical skill shown – for example, a continuous ninety second shot which swerves through the trenches and follows the aerial path of explosives. Pathos is conveyed in the scenes of civilians retreating from the devastation of the war, or terrified and at the mercy of hate-filled nationalists. However, all this is undermined by humour which sometimes works well in relieving the tension, but at other times seems inadvertent. There’s a slapstick quality to some of the fist fights, which is laugh out loud funny in one scene – apparently deliberately so – but in another case, that of the fight between the students early in the film, just laughably bad. Some of the special effects look dated and inappropriate. Taras kicks over a war memorial, then looks round fearfully as mist emerges in slow motion from the fallen memorial, a hackneyed motif which would fit better in a tongue in cheek horror. The fact that Paradox Soldiers was rejected for distribution by the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture indicates that at least in some quarters it’s been interpreted as an offensive portrayal of Ukrainian nationalism, if not a sabre rattling glorification of Russian military history.
Despite its daft elements, Paradox Soldiers isn’t unenjoyable in a gung ho fashion. Its humorous touches work with varying success, and a decent standard of performance and production design lend an air of tense reality to its depiction of battle. But its heavy-handed treatment of the morality of warfare doesn’t bear much examination, and its uneven tone and the bizarre juxtaposition of elements from different genres makes you wonder what its creators were thinking. KR
Film: Aggravated Assault
Release date: 14th February 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 96 mins
Director: David Field
Starring: George Basha, Firass Dirani, Doris Younane, Rahel Abdulrahman, Clare Bowen
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Australia
This is an English-Language release.
The directorial debut from Australian actor David Field centres on the issues faced by Lebanese-Australians in Sydney. It is told through the eyes of one family struggling to cope with violence, crime, love and loss and the sometimes incompatible differences between cultures.
John, a Lebanese-Australian, is released from prison, and returns home to his mother and younger brother, Charlie. Seeing that his brother is heading down the same road that led John to prison, he attempts to prevent him making the same mistakes.
At school Charlie must face racism, and the temptation to follow his Lebanese friends into a world of drugs and crime.
John meets and falls in love with a white woman, and they face the difficulties of being accepted by one another’s cultures.
Surrounding these characters is an increasing racial tension that threatens to engulf them all, and they must all face up to the choices they have made, and the consequences of their actions…
Aggravated Assault, aka The Combination, is a courageous film. The central theme seems to be the issue of cultural integration, suggesting that it is not simply the acceptance of new cultures by white Australians that needs attention, but also the acceptance by Lebanese-Australians of the white culture that surrounds them. But an interesting and important central theme isn’t enough, it needs to translate to dramatic cinema - in the case of Aggravated Assault, it doesn’t appear to work.
There can be no argument that the themes of racism, crime and a sense of belonging are important, and they have been tackled in films many times over, but the problem here is the lack of depth. Writer and star George Basha has claimed that the events told are based on reality, and that they are powerful in themselves cannot be denied, however, there is a lack of emotional involvement here that means the drama and power is lost. It is not enough to portray true events on film if there is a lack of sympathy and, in the case of the many plot threads, cohesion.
The central characters are of Lebanese descent, and we are told repeatedly that their culture is important to them, and yet we never feel as though we are immersed in their world, and there is little in the way of insight into what is undoubtedly a rich and interesting culture. There is more to their culture than food and dancing, but to watch Aggravated Assault you wouldn’t really know it. This makes the film feel shallow, and misses what could have been the one aspect to separate this from the countless other films that deal with similar issues.
As we move towards the climax, we are told of the tensions between white and Lebanese Australians via a news report, but this underlying tension is not sufficiently portrayed throughout the course of the film, as we are given such a narrow view. When combined with the support the central character receives from white Australians when he confronts a major criminal the message feels confused.
The central romance between John and Sydney, while played well by the two actors, never meaningfully explores the difficulties they face being from two different backgrounds. In a confrontation between the two of them, Sydney screams at John that it’s all about his culture, never about hers. This is a valid point, but again, the lack of any attachment to the characters means the message feels confused, and the lack of any meaningful attention to either culture leaves the exchange feeling like an excuse for drama, rather than a truly emotional scene. Any tensions related to a difference in culture feel superficial and contrived, rather than natural and realistic.
The film also suffers in terms of storytelling. John’s relationship with Sydney, his attempts to stop Charlie making the same mistakes, an unexplored career as a boxer, Charlie’s life of crime, racism in school, the grooming of young Lebanese by a drug baron, and the overall racism faced by Lebanese-Australians. These are the main threads of the film, and each one suffers at the hands of the others, with a lack of development of the important aspects. Racial tension that should simmer throughout the film is only pointed at randomly. The tensions between white and Lebanese in Charlie’s school is limited to one white bully, though towards the end it is hinted that the entire school is hostile to him, with no explanation in between that makes this plausible or affecting.
Lack of development leaves moments such as the face-off between Zeus, head of the Lebanese gang, and Scott, the white antagonist, feeling forced, rather than inevitable. The resulting violence is neither sufficiently shocking enough to rock the viewer into believing the moment to be of any meaning, nor is it restrained enough to convey any real emotion or drama, and the over-use of slow motion detracts from any visceral impact, turning the scene into melodrama.
There are positives to the film. George Basha in the role of John is watchable enough to carry the bulk of the film, and Claire Bowen as Sydney is very convincing. As younger brother Charlie, Firass Dirani has some difficult scenes, and fares well as a vulnerable young man unsure of what he should do but facing it with convincing youthful arrogance. Also, the cinematography is excellent, creating an Australian feel, and nearly making up for a lack of interesting shots.
There is not enough depth to raise Aggravated Assault to the level of the films with which is shares many of its themes, such as American History X and Once Were Warriors. The themes it tackles, while undoubtedly of great importance, not just in Australia but worldwide, don’t translate sufficiently enough into dramatic cinema for the messages to get across, and ultimately the film feels confused and lacks the power one would expect from such a sensitive and important subject. RM
Russian sci-fi war drama sequel.
During a recreation of one of World War II's bloodiest battles, a group of young men suddenly find themselves transported back in time to the very real horrors of the Russian front. They must now use the battle skills they learned as a hobby to fight for their lives against the German troops.
Film: Paradox Soldiers
Release date: 21st February 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Oleg Pogodin & Dmitri Voronkov
Starring: Aleksei Barabash, Semyon Belotserkovskiy, Dmitri Dyachuk, Ekaterina Klimova, Ivan Krasko
Genre: Action/Drama/Sci-Fi/War
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Russia
This is an English-language release.
Tough, tense and all-too-real, Aggravated Assault is a hard-hitting account of the shocking acts committed by gangs, the speed at which events can escalate and the difficulty of maintaining integrity in a world fraught with danger.
After a long stint doing time for a string of brutal crimes, John leaves jail determined to get his life back on track. After taking a job, he makes new friends and seems to be getting on the straight and narrow, but his gangland past soon comes back to haunt him…
John’s younger brother Charlie has become involved with a local gang, entering into the dark and dangerous world of drugs, prostitution and deadly weapons. Tensions mount as clashes with rival gangs become more frequent and blood starts to run in the streets. John realizes that Charlie is set on a course for destruction and moves in to help him, re-entering the world he vowed to leave behind.
Film: Aggravated Assault
Release date: 14th February 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 96 mins
Director: David Field
Starring: George Basha, Firass Dirani, Doris Younane, Rahel Abdulrahman, Clare Bowen
Genre: Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Australia
Film: The Counterfeiters
Release date: 17th March 2008
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Starring: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach, August Zirner
Genre: Crime/Drama/War
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Austria
Holocaust films are a tricky business. For the most part they’re produced with the dual goal of accurately depicting the Nazi’s systematic methods of reducing humans to beasts while honouring and remembering the millions of Jews who suffered, and died, at Hitler’s decree. At the same time, filmmakers don’t want to be too graphic because, with all honesty, no one with today’s Western sensibilities could sit through the truth. So it becomes hard; how to make a film about the Holocaust without glorifying it, but at the same time without trivializing it? In short, how does one tell the truth?
Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky found the answer, and the result is the 2008 Oscar winner The Counterfeiters, a film that tells the spectacular true story of Operation Bernhard; the greatest counterfeit operation in history.
At the start of the film, the audience is taken through flashback to 1936 Berlin and the arrest of Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch (Markovics), the renowned king of counterfeiters. Sorowitsch is a Russian Jew who is funding his extravagant life of gambling and women with money of his own production when a gloating Nazi by the name of Superintendent Herzog (Striesow) has him sent to prison.
Three years later, the war has broken out, and Sally is transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp. There, in a desperate effort to save his life, he weasels his way out of physical labour by offering his artistic services to the guards.
Sorowitsch survives day by day for the next five years through exchanging his skills as a painter and portraitist for extra food rations. His thoughts are for his own survival and he works to secure himself only the chance to see tomorrow.
The story moves forward with Sorowitch’s deportment to Sachsenhausen in 1944, where he comes face to face once again with Herzog, now a member of the Nazi elite. This time, rather than extinguish Sorowitch’s prodigious counterfeiting skills, Herzog intends to put them to use in the name of the Nazi party. Along with a select number of other prisoners, all who had held professional careers as printers, designers, artists or in some cases simple craftsmen, Sally is welcomed with insincere smiles before being set to work fabricating false passports and currency for the bankrupt Nazi party. Most importantly his objective is to perfect the pound and then – the ultimate goal – the dollar…
The principle focus of the film is the moral dilemma faced by the prisoners involved in Operation Bernhard. They are the star prize of the concentration camp, rewarded with soft beds, adequate food, even a ping-pong table! But as time goes by, it becomes increasingly challenging for the men to accept their luxurious lifestyle knowing how the rest of the camp is run, knowing their kin are starving and being beaten to death on the other side of the wall, and, most importantly, knowing their work will bring about the destruction of the Allies’ economies and fund the Nazi effort. Soon they are each wrestling with the question, how important is individual survival when compared with moral responsibility?
Ruzowitzky tackles the question with skill. The entire film is paced so each character’s psychological degeneration is given attention, and the audience is shown each of their breaking points - the point where they must question what survival is worth. Some give up on survival; others will stay alive at any cost. Some men are selfish. Sorowitch, in particular, will willingly help fund the Nazi war effort in order to save his own life. By contrast, the young Adolf Burger (Diehl) deliberately sabotages the production of counterfeit currency on a matter of principle, believing even if the whole team is killed as a result of his actions, they will have died for a good cause. These two men are the two extremes, but the moral restlessness of each of the counterfeiters is examined, and what makes Ruzowitzky’s film so truthful and therefore so powerful is that it tells the story in a completely objective way. One man’s belief is never shown as right or wrong; there is no ‘good guy’ or ‘bad guy’, there are only individual struggles.
Furthermore, Ruzowitzky excels in creating an honest representation of the Holocaust by focusing his film on the psychological undoing of the counterfeiters and not trying to portray life in the concentration camps as a whole. He doesn’t ignore life as an ordinary labouring prisoner; all the elements commonly associated with concentration camps are there: emaciated men, broken in body and spirit, inhaling their meagre meals and staring greedily at those who haven’t eaten as quickly - men literally killing themselves through physical labour. References are made to the gas chambers and to Auschwitz. Ruzowitzky doesn’t shy away from addressing the horrors of the camps, but he makes sure to depict that side of camp as a contrast to the counterfeiter’s lives. One of the most memorable scenes is near the end of the film, when the wall separating the Operation Bernhard team from the ordinary inmates is broken down and the audience sees the stark contrast between the reasonably well-fed and clean counterfeiting team and the savage, half-crazed looking prisoners. But for the most part, the atrocities of the camp occur off camera, which places the viewer inside the counterfeiter’s barracks, making the entire film more vivid.
Truth resonates through the film in Ruzowitzky’s use of colour: grey tones set the mood of the concentration camp and help communicate the despair felt by the men who are nothing now but shadows of ghosts. But the principle kudos of the film, of creating as real a representation of Sachsenhausen as possible, must be given to the actors. The way they held themselves, at times standing tall, eyes blazing with fury, at others hunched over, eyes vacant, was a natural physical parallel to their mental see-saw between the urge to fight back and overpowering listlessness. Markovics captured the intelligence, compassion and furious survival instinct of Sorowitch perfectly, and Diehl embodied the idealistic spirit and passion of Burger with such conviction that both characters earned the sympathy of the viewer, though neither believed in the same course of action.
The Counterfeiters rings true from start to finish. Not one line of dialogue is wasted. Each uttering, every sigh, and every outburst contributes to creating an environment where people with different ideals are forced to work together on pain of death. It is more than just another Holocaust film; it’s an examination of the moral ambiguities of life, and of the course human nature will take when faced with the difficult decision of choosing to live while others die or to dying yourself. HA
Film: Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen
Release date: 31st January 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 102 mins
Director: Andrew Lau Wai-keung
Starring: Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong, Huang Bo, Zhou Yang
Genre: Action/Drama/History/Martial Arts
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Hong Kong/China
One is an acclaimed director, the other an ever-growing martial arts man-of-the-moment. Their source material is Bruce Lee’s finest hour. How does this first collaboration between Andrew Lau and Donnie Yen shape up?
In this sequel to the mid-90s television remake of Bruce Lee’s Fist Of Fury, Legend Of The Fist sees Chen Zhen returning from fighting in World War One and assuming the identity of a fallen comrade in order to evade the Japanese Imperialists who believed that he died years before.
Becoming a partner in the famed Casablanca nightclub in Shanghai, run by the likeable Mr Liu (Wong), he falls for the charms of Kiki (Shu Qi) a beautiful singer/hostess at the club, not knowing that she is really a Japanese spy.
As the Japanese Imperial might grows stronger and more impressive, Chen’s sense of righteousness prevents him from simply sitting in the shadows. Adopting a secret identity as ‘The Masked Warrior’, he stalks the streets at night and sabotages the Japanese villains’ assassination attempts, quickly becoming a scourge of the Imperialists, and a mythologized hero to the locals.
Challenged to a wager by the evil Colonel Chikarasishi (Kohata), whereby they bet on how many dissident Chinese intellectuals the Japanese can assassinate before ‘The Masked Warrior’, Chen Zhen is drawn deeper and deeper into a desperate fight for freedom…
Opening with an intense First World War/No Man’s Land sequence featuring Donnie Yen in super-heroic mode, Legend Of The Fist establishes an extremely arresting visual style that sets the tone for a classic extravaganza of action. Along the way, the ‘classic’ adjective begins to fade, but the film remains very much the kind of thrilling fight movie that Hong Kong and China do better than anyone else.
This opening sequence, featuring Yen’s Chen Zhen battling German soldiers with just his fists, feet and occasional knives, is pure cinematic adrenaline - Lau’s stylised visuals and Yen’s kinetic choreography creating a comic book-like Saving Private Ryan. Not only does the intensity and breathtaking action set a bar so high that what follows does not always clear it, but its brief exploration of the experience of Chinese labourers conscripted (in lieu of an army) to aid the British in World War One is fascinating and unfamiliar - and instantly compelling. By the time the film returns to 1920s Shanghai, one can’t help feeling that they are leaving a more interesting film (perhaps even several) behind to tell the kind of story we’ve seen many times before.
The comic book sensibility of the prologue is retained in a very colourful depiction of occupied Shanghai, which is a pleasing layer of a gloss on a film that settles into a straightforward story of rebellion, plotting, counter-plotting and treachery, enlivened mostly by Anthony Wong’s gravitas, Shu Qi’s luminescent star quality (never more in evidence), and the presence of Donnie Yen promising that some sort of wicked beat-down is never too far away.
The film aims for political intrigue, but keeps it mostly hinted-at and often off-screen. It might play well for local audiences who can fill in the gaps, but these gaps will be occasionally frustrating for an international viewer. The filmmakers do little to prompt us to care about the story and characters beyond painting very distinct shades of good (the Chinese) and evil (everyone else, especially the Japanese). Most interesting, and even troubling, from a cinema point of view, is the presence of Gordon Chan in the credits, as both producer and co-writer. Chan directed the 1994 remake of Fist Of Fury, starring Jet Li as Chen Zhen and, in that film, showed at least a willingness to take an even-handed approach to his depiction of the Japanese. Sixteen years later and that even-handedness is sacrificed in favour of a straight-faced, chest-thumping nationalism, which is uncomfortably close to propaganda. Without seeking to excuse the atrocities of Imperialist Japanese of the era, nor dismiss the suffering of the Chinese of the time, one nevertheless is prompted to ponder if the filmmakers might be better served taking a colder, more distant view of the historical period - with several characters having monologues about the importance of national unity, making references to the list of foreign forces throughout history who tried and failed to overrun China, it is inescapable that the film aims to speak to contemporary audiences, as though China still fights the battles of centuries ago. A cause for concern, yes, but also fascinating from an academic standpoint.
But the nationalism question is really one for the viewers to informally discuss after the credits have rolled. There is more to Legend Of The Fist, though perhaps not as much more as a film this expensive warrants. It is overly straightforward, at times frustratingly so, the script doing nothing to elicit audience sympathy beyond piling one Japanese atrocity upon another (assassination, hanging, torture, rape), near-pummelling the viewer into agreeing that vengeance must be sought, even if we’re not angrily clamouring for it ourselves.
The film’s opening act - after the ingenuous prologue - serves to get all its characters in place so as to justify the action sequences most punters are paying for. Unfortunately, this results in something of a plodding, listless narrative in which one struggles to fathom certain characters’ motivations and aims, and many seem to have none at all - for example, Anthony Wong’s sympathetic nightclub owner has no real objective other than to keep his club open and leave his hands clean of blood (admirable, to be sure, but the character hovers around the story, adding no drive or momentum to the narrative). Chen Zhen is on a crusade to protect Chinese dissidents from the oppressive Japanese but, aside from an intriguing wager made between Chen and the Japanese villain Chikarasishi (that would have perhaps made the basis for an excellent action film all on its own), the film seems to assume that ‘fighting the Japanese’ is all the justification that is required.
That the film is not especially emotionally involving is a surprise when one considers who is at the helm. Andrew Lau is responsible for some of the more visceral and engaging moments in recent Hong Kong popular cinema (consider his Young And Dangerous movies, or the original Infernal Affairs), but here he shows an oddly clumsy hand with character and emotion. A low-key dialogue scene between Chen Zhen and Kiki, where each almost stumble upon the other’s real identity, is an alienating mix of repetitive questioning and overblown fake-outs, none of which creates any suspense. This romantic subplot (which develops along a pleasantly chaste and subtle trajectory) culminates in an emotional climax that would have had immense impact had their earlier flirtation been relatable. The actors work hard, and have chemistry, but the filmmakers give them little to work with beyond the expectation that the audience simply ‘knows’ the beautiful leading lady and debonair leading man must have feelings for each other. Viewers have been conditioned to expect more convincing humanity from Andrew Lau.
More curious is Lau’s liberal use of homage - not just Bruce Lee in general, but The Dark Knight (the framing and general presentation of Yen’s ‘Masked Warrior’ is highly reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s depiction of Batman) and even Mad Men (Chen Zhen’s identity swap) - which effectively stamps out the directorial voice that boomed so loudly through every frame of his Young And Dangerous series. Indeed, Legend Of The Fist draws direct comparison with some of Lau’s misfires from a decade ago - Storm Riders and A Man Called Hero - where his feel for character and moral ambiguity could not coexist with the demands of a big budget epic movie. Legend Of The Fist is better than both those films, but it does not come close to the cinematic brilliance of Lau’s Triad movies.
Lau benefits from a committed cast that works very hard. Donnie Yen has perhaps always carried himself like a leading man but, here, he confirms his status as a peer of, rather than successor to, Jackie Chan or Jet Li. Infusing his natural, unsuppressible ‘badassery’ with the stoically righteous and relatable qualities that first came to the fore in Ip Man, Yen holds the movie together, and keeps the audience on his side even when they’re not always sure what, exactly, he wants to gain beyond beating up Japanese people. He may be no Bruce Lee, but he is a magnificent Donnie Yen.
Legend Of The Fist is an event movie, and it has an event movie cast. Frequent Lau collaborator Anthony Wong is an immense asset to the film, bringing life to a character not given much by the script. Shu Qi, always growing and improving, manages to garner sympathy for a plot device. Shawn Yue turns up in an under-written role as the son of an off-screen Chinese General, whose motives and allegiances aren’t always clear. Huang Bo does well in the one comic-relief role in the film, even if his Inspector character oscillates between cowardly and upstanding at the script’s convenience.
Of course, plot and characterisation aren’t the main course for aficionados of this genre, and Donnie Yen, as action director, ensures that fight fans eat heartily with Legend Of The Fist. His recent output since his ground-breaking work on Kill Zone is very much ‘a tale of two Donnies’. There is the hard-hitting, grounded and realistic fight staging of Kill Zone and Flashpoint, where Yen shows a keen awareness of mixed martial arts and a commitment to authenticity; the other side of the coin is the over-the-top, outrageous excesses of films like Dragon Tiger Gate - and it is into this category that Legend Of The Fist falls. While Yen incorporates flashes of Jiu-Jitsu and even Wing Chun into his action here, the emphasis is squarely on comic-book style, almost supernatural feats that, in the wrong hands, can alienate an audience. Yen’s creativity with the OTT fight scenes is unmatched in this era, but there remains throughout Legend Of The Fist the niggling suspicion that, had he toned it down, it would have boosted the intensity of the fight scenes, and made us care in ways that the script simply does not. Had he lived, there is no doubt that Bruce Lee would have certainly approved of Yen’s cinematic mixed martial arts trailblazing; it is interesting to ponder what he would made of this updating of his Chen Zhen character.
This is not to take away from the action on show, for it is clearly the main reason to catch Legend Of The Fist. Always exciting, always breathtaking, and never predictable, it will hopefully ensure a decent cinema and DVD run for this movie - and if it prompts new converts to check out some of Yen’s superior back catalogue, then so much the better.
Given the talent involved, it was not unreasonable to expect something of a classic. This is far from it, but its set-pieces still contain more genuine imagination and excitement than is likely to be found anywhere else - especially in the thrilling prologue sequence, which prompts hope from this reviewer that, someday soon, the conscripted Chinese soldiers in World War One get the cinematic tribute they truly deserve. JN
American production, but Italian/German-language.
Ari Taub directs this World War Two drama.
Told from the perspective of German and Italian soldiers, the film tells the story of a doomed German army platoon stranded in the mountains of Northern Italy in the last days of the war.
Surrounded by Italian resistance fighters, the demoralised and starving soldiers helplessly await reinforcement from Mussolini's remaining loyalists. But when the Italian reinforcements do finally turn up, they are reluctant to take arms against their fellow Italians, sensing that the war they are fighting is a lost cause.
Film: The Final Sacrifice
Release date: 24th January 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 82 mins
Director: Ari Taub
Starring: Daniel Asher, C.J. Barkus, Gianluca Bianco, Davidé Borella, Hans-Dieter Brückner
Genre: Action/Drama/War
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: USA
Lau Wai-keung directs this martial arts action drama set in Japanese-occupied 1920s Shanghai.
Seven years after the apparent death of Chen Zhen (portrayed by Bruce Lee in the 1972 film Fist Of Fury, and played here by Donnie Yen), the avenging hero returns.
When he is not courting sultry nightclub singer Kiki (Shu Qi), Zhen takes it upon himself to stop the wave of assassinations sweeping Shanghai, donning a black mask to infiltrate the mob and track down the Japanese hitmen who have been killing off those named in their top-secret Death List.
Film: Legend Of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen
Release date: 31st January 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 102 mins
Director: Andrew Lau Wai-keung
Starring: Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong, Huang Bo, Zhou Yang
Genre: Action/Drama/History/Martial Arts
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Hong Kong/China
Film: Lilya 4-Ever
Release date: 22nd September 2003
Certificate: 18
Running time: 109 mins
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky, Lyubov Agapova, Liliya Shinkaryova, Elina Benenson
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Sweden/Denmark
Written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, Lilya 4-Ever focuses on isolation, poverty and the natural human desire to want to better our circumstances. Set ambiguously “somewhere which used to be the Soviet Union,” Moodysson aims to portray the story of a teenage girl born without luck or privilege. Lilya must learn to survive abandonment and poverty and use desperate means to gain her escape, with tragic consequences.
Lilya lives on a rundown estate block with her single mother, who we learn has secured passage to America, but does not take her only daughter with her. Lilya is left to the care of a sole Aunt who does not look kindly upon her new responsibility. Neither the school, social services, nor her friend Natascha provide support or kindness, and with food and basic amenities running out, Lilya turns desperately to prostitution as a means to survive.
She reluctantly strikes up a friendship with a troubled younger boy called Volodya in a part maternal, part romantic relationship which is to be only constant in the short segment of her life we are invited into.
While looking for her next client, hope arrives in the form of Andrei, a handsome suitor who is on vacation in her town. Expressing desire to spend time with Lilya, it seems hope and a chance at love has come at last, and Andrei soon offers a chance to escape the cycle of poverty by smuggling her with him to Sweden.
However, Andrei has not told Lilya everything, and she is soon to learn that her escape from pain will not be as easy as she had at first hoped…
Oksana Akinshina convincingly portrays the naivety of a teenage girl with all the bittersweet emotion from learning how adults can betray and hurt others. First her mother, then Natascha, and later Andrei all force Lilya to mature prematurely when they hurt her, and Akinshina realistically demonstrates the ability of people backed into a corner in learning how to survive by whatever means necessary. First reacting with anger and shock, and later with a dull numbing acceptance that these are the cards she has been dealt.
In dealing with the issue of child poverty, illegal smuggling, prostitution and sexual assault, Moodysson rarely offers a break from seemingly unrelenting misery. The film offers an insight into a country whose socialist politics were once championed as an ideal for the people, yet whose people were the first to be forgotten when capitalism took over.
The lighting is often grey and miserable, the buildings devoid of luxury and in disrepair, reflecting the bleakness of the character’s situation. Lilya’s story is believable, the people who do her damage equally so - the film, at times, even seeming like more of a documentary or biography than creative entertainment.
There are often subtle references to current and past Russian culture, such as the teenagers’ obsession with hardcore techno music and the latest sportswear, which has recently spurned a black market for forgeries in Russia, or the discarded party propaganda, addressing comrades of a distant time.
We are also introduced, briefly, to an elderly neighbour, and hear the recently deceased owner of Lilya’s flat being described mockingly as a “war hero.” Lilya and her friends’ negative attitudes to both of these characters demonstrate that despite the sympathy generated by us for Lilya’s plight, she in turn does not offer the same in turn, highlighting the human tendency to be inward looking, and the ability of youth to dismiss the past.
Although doubtlessly a realistic insight into life at the lowest point in society’s order, Lilya 4-Ever does not offer much more on top of documentary-style heartstring tugging. This film is ideal for those interested in learning more of what is a reality for many poor and desperate unwanted teenagers, not only in Russia but in many parts of the world today as the gap between rich and poor widens. However, this a true to life tragedy, and there is little to distract from the repetitive hammer blows that this young girl receives.
Unlike Moodysson’s previous work, Together, which had delightfully intricate characterisation, Lilya 4-Ever has little to offer in analysis of relationships between people, as Lilya does not have any successful relationships to speak of. Her main friendship with Volodya is in one sense a touching demonstration of childhood innocence, and the strong bond which can develop in desperate times, but they are both children, and due to this, the conversation itself never evolves to an adult level. There is a beauty in this, of course; however, this film is one of emotion and sadness, and not one for those who are expecting the witty exchanges and character variety that Together provided.
Moodysson has a talent for reflecting the culture and essence of a certain time and drawing out emotion from the location and the people. However, he is so consistent in this that you should not expect respite from the themes he is passionate about expressing. Definitely worth its initial critical acclaim in so much as being a realistically moving plot and shot well, but not one for the emotionally delicate or those prone to depression. AT
