Partisan should had been a much better film with a smarter script and better director. It is a dark brooding drama heightened by Vincent Cassell's simmering performance of underlying menace.
Cassell plays Gregori as a modern day Fagin. He operates a commune in an isolated decaying part of town that consists of single mothers raising children. Gregori is the father figure in this self sustaining commune but it not all hippyish ideals with the community raising their own livestock and vegetables.
Gregori is operating the kids as assassins and robbers, these young people are killers including 11 year old Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel) who starts to question Gregori's authority and his way of life. Another boy Leo flouts the rules of the commune especially when he refuses to eat chickens and then disappears along with his mother.
Partisan is about Gregori trying not to lose control, a cult leader who is just another criminal gang leader using child assassins. I can see Partisan attracting a cult reputation with its moody tone but it feels underwritten, the characters and plot needed to be fleshed out.
Plot summary
On the edge of a crumbling city, 11-year-old Alexander lives in a sequestered commune alongside other children, their mothers, and charismatic leader, Gregori. Gregori teaches the children how to raise livestock, grow vegetables, work as a community - and how to kill. With the birth of a new baby brother weighing on his mind, Alexander begins to question Gregori’s overpowering influence on the children and their training to become assassins. Threatened by his increasing unwillingness to fall in line, Gregori’s behavior turns erratic and adversarial toward the child he once considered a son. With the two set dangerously at odds and the commune’s way of life disintegrating, the residents fear a violent resolution is at hand.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
August 29, 2019 at 02:52 AM
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The chickens come home to roost
Artistic & Philosophical Australian Indie About Determined Detachment
Colorfully decorated sets and Art-Design paint a cheerfully bleak existence of a "Family" of self isolated misfits and victims of a larger Society that have isolated themselves from the "Hurt" of reality.
Likable but verging on insanity, charming like most Cult-Leaders, Vincent Cassel is slowly shown to be a manipulative maniac giving refuge to single Women with Children. What transpires is a depressing scenario.
This offbeat, low-budget Australian Movie has Philosophical, Psychological, and Societal things on its mind and delivers engaging but erratic implications of the Human condition, its strengths and shortcomings.
Worth a watch for its Artistry but the deep subject matter is never fully thought out and seems a shortcut with its ambiguous storytelling. Much needed background to make it convincing and insightful is never supplied to the viewer and that does this ambitious little Film a disservice.
Because in the end the extremely interesting and always good to look at Movie is big on display but does not have what is most needed in this type of thing, information for involvement.
Original and interesting throughout! 7/10
Review: For such a basic movie about a man, Gregori (Vincent Cassel) who builds his own territory for troubled women with children, and also lives with his wife Susanna (Florence Mezzara) and young son Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel), who is a trained cold blooded killer, it really did touch me. Alexander just wants do be a normal young boy, and he is curious about the outside world and the right and wrongs of life but his father has his own ideas for Alexander, and he tries to gear him towards the secluded life that he has built. After the strange disappearance of a young boy, who turns against Gregori, Alexander becomes weary of his father's intentions and he starts to question his life as an assassin, which doesn't go down to well with Gregori. His love for his mother and there new born baby, makes him take matters into his own hands, so he can better there life and get them away from the demanding and extremely unorthodox, Gregori. This is definitely an original concept, with some great acting from Cassel, Chabriel and the little boy who goes against Gregori. The whole trained assassin element, was a bit weird and the fact that they kept on getting away with it, wasn't very realistic but the rest of the storyline was great. Scenes like when Gregori's methods were questioned by the little boy, who was totally against killing the chicken, made this film a joy to watch and the transformation for Cassel, who really did look like he had the world on his shoulders, was also impressive. For a low budget, independent movie, that didn't get the biggest distribution campaign from the studio, I'm glad that I gave this movie a chance because I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great!
Round-Up: French actor Vincent Cassel, 49, first impressed me in the movie La Haine in 1995, and he has gone on to make big budget movies like Joan of Arc, Shrek, Irreversible, Ocean's 12 & 13, Derailed, Eastern Promises, Mesrine, Black Swan, A Dangerous Method and Child 44. His next big movie, Jason Bourne alongside Matt Damon, proves that he definitely has the ability to star in big budget movies, while he still makes films for his native country but I personally think that he doesn't get the recognition that he deserves. Anyway, this movie was directed and written by Ariel Kleiman, 31, who has only made 5 shorts in his career. For his first major project, he certainly got the most out of the actors and the great script kept the movie interesting, from beginning to end.
I recommend this movie to people who are into their thriller/dramas starring Vincent Cassel, Jeremy Chabriel, Florence Mezzara and Charlotte Miller. 7/10