It’s morning at the Venice Film Festival. Hundreds of journalists are sitting in a cinema for their second film screening of the day. Many have been awake since the early hours of the morning. Some yawn. Romain Gavras’ new film Athena will be screened, the from September 23 on Netflix will be seen. A socio-political action drama in which the residents of a Parisian suburb rise up against the police.
The first 10 minutes or so show how several people attack a police station and then triumphantly withdraw to their fort, the gray prefabricated buildings of Athena. The incident, which does not require a single cut, ends in one breathtaking setting that electrifies the entire hall and let them bang enthusiastically.
At film festivals there is a lot of clapping, but usually only at the end of a film. But Athena is special. You can’t help but react physically to what you see here. Be it to clap, to hoot – or like me in shock and with goosebumps all over his body to freeze in the cinema seat. A position from which I can only free myself an hour and a half later.
There are not worlds between the action in Athena and The Gray Man, but entire galaxies
©Netflix
Karim, center left, is the leader of the uprising
First and foremost, the film is a tragedy. After this 13-year-old Idir is beaten to death by several people in police uniforms and video of the incident goes viral, his older brothers find different ways of dealing with the incident. Dealer Moktar (Ouassini Embarek) is about to embroider but has to take care of his drug and gun business. Professional soldier Abdel (Dali Benssalah) wants to emotionally support the rest of the family and hopes that the police will provide a full explanation. However, they claim that right-wing extremists disguised as police officers are responsible. Karim (Sami Slimane) sees only one chance to take action against the outrageous injustice: start a war in the suburb of Athenawhich ends only when the names of his brother’s killers are made public.
What follows is a 97-minute snapshot from the urban trenches. On the one hand young men with improvised weaponswho no longer want to be treated like second-class citizens because of their families’ origins. On the other hand, hundreds of French police – with protective shields, batons and a lot of fear behind the black helmets. The controversy eventually spreads from the Parisian suburb to the whole of France.
Breathlessly, the camera follows the various actors through clouds of smoke, hail of bullets and hectic briefings between shabby people Concrete buildings that looked like a war zone even before the escalation. However, not between the police and the insurgents, but between people below the poverty line and the rest of French society. There are not worlds between the moments of suspense in this film and The Gray Man, Netflix’s outrageously expensive action hope of the year, but entire galaxies.
Athena is not only one of the bravest, but also one of the best Netflix movies to date
But Romain Gavra’s film is not gray abuse porn. He vibrates. Every act of aggression is a staged feat, a visually stunning iconography of anger. Accompanied by orchestral choirs, Molotov cocktails and fireworks fly into police troops armed to the teeth, who can only be held in check by a motorbike circling around them. Athena stages the rebels as young men who not only want to feel right, but also want to feel cool. Each shot could have come from a music video, which is fitting: Gavras shot the scandalous video for the band Justice, including Stress. Athena not only has style, but also substance. You just have to search a bit for it.
The Furious also shows a shockingly impressive picture of French banlieues
The Angry Ones – Les Miserables – Trailer (German) HD
The Netflix film addresses the consequences of police violence. What happens when people no longer believe in law, at least not that they are judged right. The impotence finally turns into blind hatred and violence. The desire to make a mark that can no longer be ignored. Director and screenwriter Romain Gavras and his co-writer Ladj Ly (last nominated for an Oscar for Les Misérables) prove once and for all that they are masters of their craft, Banlieue cinema icons. Mathieu Kassovitz set the standard with Hate in the 1990s and influenced not only social discourse with his film, but also pop culture. Athena could play a similar role for the new generation.
Athena shows that it is often difficult to distinguish between right-wing and police violence
If Athena can be blamed for anything, it’s that the film could tell a little more about its characters. He doesn’t show how people get to a point where they see no other way out. The motives of the protagonists remain more of a sketch than a colored interior view. In the second half of the film, this causes Athena to falter a bit. What comes after the next action scene? How can this story have an interesting ending when it’s pretty clear from the start that the insurgents can’t win?
At the very end, however, Gavras creates an image that is burned into your memory forever. And delivers a realization that hurts: Actually, it doesn’t matter if Idir was really killed by police officers or by right-wing extremists in police uniforms who wanted to start an escalation – as the police have repeatedly asserted. Suffice it to say that it is entirely conceivable that officials killed Idir.
You don’t have to live in the fictional Parisian suburb of Athena or follow the “Black Lives Matter” discourse in the US to know that police violence is a problem. It is enough to read the news here in Germany – for example about right-wing extremist networks within the police force. Is a civil war the right answer? Certainly not. but there’s a reason this movie feels so urgent right now. And Danger Dan was applauded last year for a song where he sings: “If you cannot face the violence peacefully, the last resort we all have is militancy.”
Are you looking forward to Athena?