Partisan review: A frustratingly bleak and ambiguous tale.
Partisan review
If you’re in the mood to take a tenebrous journey through the nothingness with a utopian crackpot and his merry band of kiddie killers, then perhaps writer/director Ariel Kleiman’s Partisan might be the film for you.
It’s one of those films you hate to write about because on the one hand, you want to applaud Kleiman for having feature film debut balls of steel to craft a film that the black hole might even reject whilst the other hand wants to slap this frustratingly bleak and ambiguous tale right out the cinema’s back door.
What is in Partisan’s favour however, is the captivating presence and performance of Vincent Cassel as utopian sociopath, Gregori. Whether you want to hate him or be empathetic towards Gregori, Cassel will have you tethered to his every movement on screen.
Inspired by Columbian child assassins and set in an isolated compound in an unidentified land and indeterminate time, Partisan takes audiences on a dusty, hollow journey, as seen from the perspective of Gregori’s adopted 11-year-old son Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel).
Skulking the halls of a maternity ward in the opening minutes, audiences are introduced to the charismatic, wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing Gregori as he searches for a vulnerable, single mother disillusioned by the world to entice to his utopian cult. Having just given birth to son Alexander, Susanna (Florence Mezzara) soon finds herself engaged in a discussion with Gregori and graciously accepts his offered flowers.
Jumping eleven years, the focus shifts to Alexander who is now the eldest of 20 children in the commune. Whilst their mothers’ days are spent tending to the animals and gardens, the children are put through a rigorous routine of running assassination drills, and popping balloons on boards for target practice when they are not playing paintball. These little assassins in training even get a gold star for marksmanship or a round at karaoke.
Partisan review
An examination of familial bonds during childhood, Gregori’s beliefs are soon challenged when Alexander starts to question his life in the commune and his growing curiosity with newcomer Leo (Alex Balaganskiy), a young boy who seems to defy Gregori’s instructions at every turn, subsequently finding himself punished by being locked up in the chicken coop. Soon after, Leo and his mother are no longer seen (not that the audience is told either way) in the commune and the relationship between Gregori and Alexander spirals downward as Gregori struggles to fight the ‘mutiny’ against his utopian beliefs.
In keeping with the film’s vague through line, Partisan ends just as openly with the final, menacing confrontation between Gregori and Alexander left hanging for audiences to deduce their own conclusions. That is, of course, if you actually lasted til the end.
Partisan has definite appeal and will be enjoyed by a variety of audiences, this cinema-goer however, is unfortunately not one of them.
Partisan review by Sacha Hall, October 2015.
Partisan was reviewed at the BFI London Film Festival, 2015.
