Back in 1978, a young director named Michael Cimino won an Academy Award for his second feature film, The Deer Hunter. Starring Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken, the one sequence that remained unforgettable was the Russian Roulette game that the two characters are forced to play while they are P.O.W’s. It’s a terrifying piece of film, as the suspense builds and we watch these men slowly losing their sanity with each passing round. For years, every time a sequence like this plays in a different film, the comparison to The Deer Hunter was always inevitable, and you always ask yourself how you would react if you were in that same situation, if someone demanded that you shoot the gun that you have aimed at your own head.
After almost thirty years, we finally have a film that not only equals the intensity that is in The Deer Hunter; in many ways, this film surpasses it. The film is 13 TZAMETI, a French film written and directed by Gela Babluani, making his feature film debut. His brother Georges stars as Sebastien, a roofer caring for his impoverished family – including his brother who walks with a terrible limp – by working as often as possible to bring in the little money he can. You can see right from the beginning that he’s a genuinely nice guy who wants only the best for his family, and he’s willing to go to any lengths to make sure all of his loved ones are cared for. This helps you give a damn about him right away, something that not too many original films can do these days.
The fact that Sebastien is only 22 and is still the top moneymaker in his family is a fact that’s not lost on his latest client Jean-Francois, who tells him: “Some people are 25 or 30, but to be 22, that’s amazing. Absolutely amazing.” At first, it seems like Jean-Francois is rambling on since he’s high on morphine, but considering that he hasn’t encountered a man that young to be doing so much, it’s quite a compliment.
Jean-Francois and his wife have hired Sebastien to fix their roof and have promised him an advance of $300 euros. Unfortunately for Sebastien, Jean-Francois dies of a morphine overdose and his wife will have to vacate the house since his sister will be taking it over. This means poor Sebastien is out of a job before he can even get his advance, but as he is cleaning up, he overhears a conversation about an envelope that he finds that will promise a lot of money. All that is in the envelope is a train ticket and a paid hotel bill, and even though Sebastien has no idea where this train will take him, he assumes Jean-Francois’ identity and goes in his place.
Sebastien’s journey takes him to a locker, where he finds further instructions and a card that just says 13 on it. When he reaches his destination, he finds himself sucked into a high-stakes game of Russian Roulette, where instead of players pointing the guns at their own heads, they are all standing in a circle with their guns pointed at the back of the head of the person in front of them. Nobody is allowed to look each other in the eyes, and they are instructed to fire only when a light bulb in the middle of the circle goes on. It is during this sequence where we meet a whole new group of characters that neither Sebastien, nor the audience, ever intended to meet.
There are the high-stakes gamblers, betting hundreds of thousands of dollars on these men of all ages wearing gray T-shirts with numbers taped on them. There is Player 11, a middle-aged man who is obviously using this game as his only method of income, but is paying the price with his sanity and has to be tied down and injected with morphine after each round. There is the 400-pound bald man who has to sit in a chair to shoot at his target, and then calmly plays the piano while the gamblers are placing bets. There is Player 6, and his brother who is placing bets on his behalf. This entire sequence is more than just a game; it shows us modern-day gladiatorial combat where man is pitted against man for everyone’s enjoyment.
13 TZAMETI is, without a doubt, one of the greatest movies about desperation that I’ve ever seen. Sebastien is such a strong character in that he is literally jumping into darkness without a flashlight, just for the sake of making money for his family. He has no idea whether this money will be equivalent to the lottery, or if it will help keep the lights on in the house for just one more day. And despite the limited information we have about this character, that’s what makes him and 13 TZAMETI work. It’s a lean film and then becomes a lean and mean one. All we know about Sebastien at first is that he needs money and this envelope may help him get some. As we see what he brings himself to do – all the while refusing morphine so he will be fully aware of what he is doing – for these precious moments, he becomes lean and mean, adapting to the world around him but never losing himself in it.
The intensity of the situation is handled expertly as well, since for the beginning of the film all the way through the journey, there is a music score to literally string us along. As soon as Sebastien gets to the game, the music stops. It’s as if the place is so secret and so closed off from the rest of society that the composer wasn’t even allowed in. And since there is no music, the only thing you can really hear is the heartbeats of the players as they wait, and wait, and wait for that light bulb to turn on and hope that the light bulb’s not the last thing they see.
This is what makes 13 TZAMETI better than The Deer Hunter. The P.O.W.’s were captured and forced to play this game against their will. The game that Sebastien unknowingly joins is something that people volunteer to take part in for money. Through it all, you can’t help but wonder what you would do in Sebastien’s position, as your gun is aimed at another man’s head and you’re one step away from ceasing to be an ordinary man and becoming a murderer. Are these lengths worth going through for your family?
The 411: I can’t recommend 13 TZAMETI enough. Gela Babluani has made a striking feature film debut that crackles with energy and is not boring for a second. Even those who don’t see foreign films because they don’t like reading the subtitles should see this. It’s not only the best film I’ve seen all year; it’s also one of the most intense films I’ve seen this decade.
