PARTISAN

2.5 stars (out of 5)

Melbournian co-writer/director Ariel Kleiman’s feature début is a deeply frustrating head-scratcher inspired by, apparently, the real-life plights of child soldiers in Colombia and around the world, which sounds very noble indeed. Except, of course, that the film actually plays like an inside-the-cult psychodrama (like the recent and rather more ‘Australian’ One Eyed Girl), and one in which nothing is ever properly explained and the viewer is left wondering about crucial details like who the Hell are these sketchy characters, where is all this taking place, what exactly is going on – and, unfortunately, why should we care?

In an apparently (?) Eastern European town (although much of this was reportedly filmed in Victoria) which some seem to think is apocalyptic (no, it’s just hideous) we meet Gregori (French actor Vincent Cassel), who approaches and charms Susanna (Florence Mezzara) in a scummy hospital shortly after the birth of her son Alexander. We then pick up a decade later when Alex is about to turn 11 and is now played by untested actor Jeremy Chabriel, and he’s just one of a bunch of kids who might or might not be Gregori’s running around a walled commune. The only man in the place, Gregori has the littlies and the Mums believing that he’s Dad and/or boss and/or God (or something), but it seems that Alexander is now starting to think for himself and isn’t easily sucked in by all the team-building/brainwashing activities, which include group wading-pool fun, assorted feastings and some dire karaoke. And this is a bad time for Alexander to suddenly grow up and start questioning too, especially as Gregori has started sending him into the nearby metropolis to (for reasons never made as clear as they should be) assassinate a series of grungy types.

But why? Well, who knows? And yes, there’s nothing wrong with deliberately withholding important plot points and leaving the audience to wrack their brains and maybe even be surprised and amazed when they suddenly work out what’s happening onscreen – but nothing here is surprising or amazing. The action is plodding, inscrutable or repetitious, the characterisation thin and the whole damn point of it all a bit of a mystery, and while Chabriel is good, the hairy, scary Cassel (so fond of the nasty side of things after Irreversible, Eastern Promises, Black Swan and so forth) is pretty dreary as Gregori.

Bye Partisan!!!