Les Mauvais Joueurs (Gamblers)

17:00
30 Oktober 2007
Europe on Screen 2007

Free ticket available 30 min before opening


Erasmus Huis - Capacity: 350 seats
Jl. H. R. Rasuna Said Kav. S-3 - Kuningan - T 524 1069

Your Learn is very God
Ivan Handoyo, 2004, 3 min.
Indonesia, Documentary

Les Mauvais Joueurs
Frederic Balekdjian, 2005, 85 min
France. Drama. French with English subtitles.
Eager to make a better living hustling on the mean streets of the Paris garment district, Vahe (Pascal Elbe) finds he may lose everything when he tries to negotiate a financial dispute between his ex-girlfriend's brother and the gang that smuggled him into the country. Talks break down, and with the threat of violence looming large, Vahe is forced to choose between competing loyalties.

The last time a French film exploded with such raw energy was when Mathieu Kassovitz debuted with La Haine in 1995. This is writer/director Frederic Balekdijan's first feature, also, and it uses the same neo-realistic style, with handheld cameras close in and on the streets. There isn't a whiff of falsehood, or evidence of a set designer's duster. Even the script has the rough-cut unpredictability of real life.

It deals with card sharks, street scams, petty crime, backed by an uglier, darker crowd of Armenian thugs. This is the Paris of immigrants, sweat shops, cafes and illegals. Chinese, North Africans, Eastern European gangsters coexist in a barely sustainable truce. Sooner or later a spark will ignite the tinderbox and someone will be killed. Followed by revenge attacks. Followed by God knows what else. In this no-go, gendarmes are noticeable by their absence.
Copy picture

Vahe's Chinese girlfriend has just dropped him and he finds himself babysitting her teenage brother, not because he has to, but the kid can't speak the language, is hot headed and liable to do himself harm. Their relationship is a mixture of resentment and affection, which leads them into danger.

Stories and characters move swiftly. There is no conventional plot, only the time it takes to rip the lid off the powder keg and somehow survive. Or not.

Cliches and sentimentality die at this level. Neo-realism has an artistic integrity, aligned to good taste. Gamblers, like La Haine, breathes its own fumes in a place where there is no translation for words like "taste" and "art."
- Angus Wolfe Murray [picture: Cinebel.be]

“Europe on Screen” Secretariat
c/o Goethe-Institut Jakarta
Jl Sam Ratulangi 9-15, Jakarta 10350
Tel +62 21 2355 0208
Fax + 62 21 2355 0021
E-mail: prakt1@jakarta.goethe.org
Website: http://www.uni-eropa.org/film