If this what gets Academy awards, Golden Globe, etc. etc. then woe on our cinema. This film is full of prison tropes, excruciatingly long and pointless. After reading a positive review of MANOHLA DARGIS in the Times, who's not often complementary and is not afraid of controversy, I invested two and a half hours of my time and left disappointed. What Dargis praised is in the murder scene where main character notices fancy shoes in the vitrine, while he should be preparing for the kill and his emergence after committing the murder as if being reborn (being in a haze as if in the womb) as a committed killer. This was indeed interesting solution, but what about other 2 hours and 20 minutes? The film feels like an average student's work.
There is an element of 'strangeness' in the film because of twice removed language-culture: in the framework of French state and language we see French-Arabs and French-Corsicans with Italian flavor and also some French-Africans. This is unusual for average American viewer, however overwhelming majority of action is taking place in the prison, all you see is concrete of the cells and the shower room.
Characters and action are very poorly developed. Malik's motivation is not clear. He does not seem at first to be a killer, then succumbs to the pressure, kills his fellow Arab, then becomes good at scheming and moves into a leadership position. Interestingly, the apparition of his fellow Arab he kills, appears to him in the guise of a spiritual adviser and Koran teacher. As a result, Malik emerges as a positive character, finally becoming Arab again (this is after all his betrayals) and the wife of his deceased friend seems to offer herself and her child to him. The implication perhaps that Malik, who was an animal, now has connection with the child...? I give up.
In summary, the story line is a kind of lunacy, amateurish and embarrassing.
There is an element of 'strangeness' in the film because of twice removed language-culture: in the framework of French state and language we see French-Arabs and French-Corsicans with Italian flavor and also some French-Africans. This is unusual for average American viewer, however overwhelming majority of action is taking place in the prison, all you see is concrete of the cells and the shower room.
Characters and action are very poorly developed. Malik's motivation is not clear. He does not seem at first to be a killer, then succumbs to the pressure, kills his fellow Arab, then becomes good at scheming and moves into a leadership position. Interestingly, the apparition of his fellow Arab he kills, appears to him in the guise of a spiritual adviser and Koran teacher. As a result, Malik emerges as a positive character, finally becoming Arab again (this is after all his betrayals) and the wife of his deceased friend seems to offer herself and her child to him. The implication perhaps that Malik, who was an animal, now has connection with the child...? I give up.
In summary, the story line is a kind of lunacy, amateurish and embarrassing.