{"id":53,"date":"2017-05-06T07:27:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/2017\/05\/06\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewspartisan-movie-review\/"},"modified":"2017-05-06T07:27:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:13","slug":"httptheblurb-com-aureviewspartisan-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewspartisan-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Partisan – movie review"},"content":{"rendered":"

A thought provoking art-house film from a first time Australian director (28-year-old Melburnian Ariel Kleiman, now based in London), it focuses upon an enclave cut off from the real world. Under the guise of protection, a cult figure known as\u00a0Gregori (Vincent Cassel) professes bonhomie while riding roughshod over a gaggle of women and their offspring. This is a dystopian society if I ever saw one.<\/p>\n

\"Partisan-01\"Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel) is 11, the eldest of several children living in a closed-off compound on the outskirts of a town, presumably in the Russian Caucasus or that part of the world (the film was actually shot in Melbourne and Georgia in eastern Europe). Within its walls Alexander has been raised by Gregori, his mother Susanna (Florence Mezzara) and a group of women \u2013 mothers to the other children and all part of his extended family.\u00a0 Gregori is a charming and mysterious figure. He has created a safe haven and over the years recruited his extended family, offering them an idyllic alternative to the hellish reality he believes exists beyond the compound\u2019s walls.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a colourful and energetic world, where freedom of expression and creativity are encouraged through open education and karaoke nights. But it\u2019s also an insular environment closed off from the outside. Alexander is like any other kid: playful, curious and naive. He is also a trained assassin. Taught to rely solely on the teachings of their parents, Alexander and other children dutifully leave the safety of their community in order to carry out Gregori\u2019s orders. Despite their cold-blooded nature, their missions have always seemed innocent and inconsequential, with the children never fully comprehending the gravity of their actions. But something happens that opens Alexander\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

In early 2010, co-writer and director Ariel Kleiman came across a feature article in the New York Times<\/i> about the child assassin trade in Columbia. Aside from the horrific nature of these kids\u2019 stories and actions, he wasn\u2019t sure why months later that image of a child gunning down a man stayed with him as much as it did. Then he came across a line from one of his filmmaking heroes, Luis Bu\u00f1uel, who was quoted as saying he couldn\u2019t think of a more surreal image than one man shooting another man. It was a very simple statement but the more Kleiman thought about it the more he had a feeling deep within him telling him that he needed to turn his gut reaction into a film.\u00a0 He knew from the start that he didn\u2019t want to tell a story specifically about the trades in Columbia. Kleiman stripped the story of all the drugs and economic and socio-political factors inherent to that reality. He wanted to tell a universal mythic tale about the relationship between kids and adults.<\/p>\n

It became a story about the power of independent thought and the tragedy of children not being allowed to see the world through clear and optimistic eyes.\u00a0 Whilst writing Partisan<\/i>, he and co-writer Sarah Cyngler often thought of the film as a fable \u2013 in many ways it\u2019s a Pied Piper tale.<\/p>\n