Partisan (2015)

Touches You

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie provides a safety of anonymity over its characters by never giving away the location of the setting, an isolated dream taking place beyond the pale of society with its own mechanism, but sometimes a lucid dream gives life to what is kept in the deep hollows of the collective consciousness.Alexander, a young boy of sensibility, lives among a community of children and women overseen by just one man, Gregori. The film documents the manipulation that takes place as the group exist to function for a cause of its own and juxtaposes the fanaticism, of a controlled and ultimately an abusive nature, with the open wonder of the innocence of childhood.The mechanisms of Oedipal crisis is at work and Alexander opens his eyes to the world around him, made significant with the arrival of a baby brother. However, the much debated theme, commonly based on the Freudian concept of repressed sexuality, makes its transition much quicker to the stages of puberty and adulthood as the boy begins to realize his actions must now carry the consequences of social responsibility, or the lack thereof. The film ends abruptly to prevent something really serious from happening. Instead, it leaves us on a poignant note of a scene, reminding us of Ezekiel 25:17, with boy Alexander emanating a plea for deliverance through his being as he stares down the only responsible man in his eyes.Dream-like, painstaking and most certainly a unique film experience that's put the young director on my radar.

Review: For such a basic movie about a man, Gregori (Vincent Cassel) who builds his own territory for troubled women with children, and also lives with his wife Susanna (Florence Mezzara) and young son Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel), who is a trained cold blooded killer, it really did touch me. Alexander just wants do be a normal young boy, and he is curious about the outside world and the right and wrongs of life but his father has his own ideas for Alexander, and he tries to gear him towards the secluded life that he has built. After the strange disappearance of a young boy, who turns against Gregori, Alexander becomes weary of his father's intentions and he starts to question his life as an assassin, which doesn't go down to well with Gregori. His love for his mother and there new born baby, makes him take matters into his own hands, so he can better there life and get them away from the demanding and extremely unorthodox, Gregori. This is definitely an original concept, with some great acting from Cassel, Chabriel and the little boy who goes against Gregori. The whole trained assassin element, was a bit weird and the fact that they kept on getting away with it, wasn't very realistic but the rest of the storyline was great. Scenes like when Gregori's methods were questioned by the little boy, who was totally against killing the chicken, made this film a joy to watch and the transformation for Cassel, who really did look like he had the world on his shoulders, was also impressive. For a low budget, independent movie, that didn't get the biggest distribution campaign from the studio, I'm glad that I gave this movie a chance because I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great!Round-Up: French actor Vincent Cassel, 49, first impressed me in the movie La Haine in 1995, and he has gone on to make big budget movies like Joan of Arc, Shrek, Irreversible, Ocean's 12 & 13, Derailed, Eastern Promises, Mesrine, Black Swan, A Dangerous Method and Child 44. His next big movie, Jason Bourne alongside Matt Damon, proves that he definitely has the ability to star in big budget movies, while he still makes films for his native country but I personally think that he doesn't get the recognition that he deserves. Anyway, this movie was directed and written by Ariel Kleiman, 31, who has only made 5 shorts in his career. For his first major project, he certainly got the most out of the actors and the great script kept the movie interesting, from beginning to end. I recommend this movie to people who are into their thriller/dramas starring Vincent Cassel, Jeremy Chabriel, Florence Mezzara and Charlotte Miller. 7/10

Gregori, who operates a child assassin patriarch, adopts newborn Alexander after seeing his mother, Susanna, without a partner at a hospital. Eleven years later, Alexander is now, unbeknown to him, an adept assassin running missions with other children adopted in the same manner. Gregori tells the children the world is full of terrible men which is why they must carry out their missions, but Alexander becomes more aware of the outside world, and Gregori realises his controlling aura is fading.......Cults are a funny thing, on one hand, they can be a terrifying aspect of life, Waco comes to mind, and the film that tried to emulate that 'Red State'. On the other, they can be as bonkers as they come, like that bloke a few years ago who recruited a few mentally inept people, telling them there was a shuttle behind a comet that would take them to paradise.........there wasn't.But they all have one word in common...........sinister.And this is the reason why the film works in some ways, and in others, it doesn't, because the narrative spoon feeds you the fact that Cassel isn't all what he seems, and he isn't the bohemian saviour the children are led to believe, he's just a business man, plain and simple, and the children are his work tools.But the narrative doesn't focus on Gregori and his school of Leon's and Nikitas, which would make an interesting film on its own, it focuses more on the hierarchy of the children and their relationship with Gregori, as it appears that Alexander was the first addition to Gregori's 'family', as his mother wears almost managerial clothing as compared to the other mothers.Cassel is wonderful as the puppet master who's strings are starting to fray, and his on screen relationship with Alexander is as distressing as it is calming. The audience knows that Alexander is becoming aware of Gregori's domination, and know that Gregori too is aware, making the second and third act very intense.But then, just after the chicken incident, the film loses its way as fast as Gregori loses respect from the family, and it begins to leave a lot of unanswered questions, such as, why did Alexander give Leo the food, and where did Leo and his mother go? Were they killed, sis Alexander subliminally kill them? And what is the purpose of the boy on the hill? An image of realism in Alexander's life?But the stark imagery is mind blowing, and there are some scenes that could almost represent the films genre as horror.An oddity for sure, full of vibrancy and angst, but like a headless chicken, loses its way toward the end.

For all intents and purposes Partisan neither feels like, looks like or acts like an Australian film despite it very much so being one. It's a rare thing for an Australian film to achieve that feat of not actually feeling Australian and while it's hard to know whether in the case of Ariel film here if this is a good thing, it's not hard for one to feel that Partisan is a sadly frustrating experience to witness.Filmed in a dark, gloomy and atmospheric fashion by first time feature film director Ariel Kleiman, Partisan looks the part and while it's never stated where or at what time this film takes place it has an almost 1984 feel to proceedings that gives it a universal feel that this is a tale that could be happening anywhere in our great big world. The troubling thing about Partisan is that this non-disclosure of where the film is taking place is just one of many things that it never lets the audience into.Kleiman's whole film feels eerie, almost an Oliver Twist gone bad type feel as Vincent Cassel's Gregori looks over and trains his not so merry band of children to go about some pretty confronting missions, but Partisan never cares to absolutely let us into its mindset, although it's clear Gregori is some type of saviour to women in need.You keep watching in hope of finding out more behind the whole thing but sadly the answers are never forthcoming, which is a shame as young actor Jeremy Chabriel handles himself well despite his character of Alexander not being an overly endearing one and Vincent Cassel (a last minute replacement of Oscar Isaac) acquits himself well. Kleiman also shows enough to suggest his future endeavors could be quite the treat and the films soundtrack by Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) is easily one of the year's best.It's all fine and well to have your film remain shrouded in some mystery but unfortunately for Partisan there's just too much mystery and not enough answers and the film suffers emotionally for it and fails to engage in the way in which it so easily could've. A unique Australian backed effort with moments of genuine greatness, Partisan has wins but far far too many losses to compensate for.2 upside-down chickens out of 5