Reviews

13 Tzameti

Winner takes all until he loses everything

By A.S. HAMRAH | August 23, 2006

3.0 Stars

In the Western world today, where an infantilized culture contends with suicide bombing, it was perhaps inevitable that somebody would combine musical chairs with Russian roulette. That somebody is Géla Babluani, French-Georgian first-time director of the sensationalistic thriller 13 Tzameti. Shot in black-and-white (to minimize the blood), 13 Tzameti (“tzameti” is 13 in Georgian) follows Sébastien (George Babluani), a 22-year-old immigrant roofer, into the darkest pits of allegorical hell. After a Lynch-like prologue set at a house he is roofing, Sébastien becomes Player 13 in a gun-to-the-back-of-the-head roundelay that will mercilessly appeal to fans of the extreme. The game is an all-purpose metaphor for hard-working immigrant success in a sick capitalist society: winner takes all until he loses everything and the next guy in line takes his place. The film is harrowing, if predictable, and it features an ending set firmly within the Clouzot-ish French tradition of pessimism and negativity.

On the Web
13 Tzameti's official Web site: http://www.tzameti.com/

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