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Ratings574
JvH48's rating
Reviews547
JvH48's rating
It takes lots of time to get a clear view on the underlying plot. It may be that the filmmakers counted on our familiarity with the overarching court case, but for us living outside Belgium it particularly did not work. During the overly long pre-amble, I was pondering what the plot would lead to: (a) the child porn is planted to pressure Francois to do something in the context of the court case he is involved in. This course case is mentioned several times, but what it entails remained a mystery; OR (b) Francois studied the child porn on grounds of "need to know" in the context of said court case. By chance, Raphael discovered it many years ago, watched it out of curiosity, got hooked and kept looking for similar stuff on Internet, explaining the 7,700 views; OR (c) others in the family were sexually abused when they were young, but kept silent about it for many years, now suddenly coming forward for some reason; OR (d).... I can go on like this, randomly combining other plot elements that can be constructed out of the building blocks presented.
The background court case is a high profile one, given journalists who are waiting 24/7 before their house, overwhelming them with questions at the gate. It gives rise to suspicions from my side that political elements were trying to steer in a certain direction, but that Francois did not give in as a matter of principle, while TPTB heightened the pressure until their (hidden) goal is reached, no matter what it does to the personal lives of the family involved.
It takes lots of time to unconfuse us and make clear which direction the plot is going to take, and suddenly it hits us that the case is less convoluted than I thought at first. In other words, an anticlimax. Before that, I felt a light but continuous tension throughout, letting us wonder which development or turn of event would be next. Tantalizing when one of my assumed plots (see above) was to come out. It did not, in my opinion, a missed chance to get the story to a higher level.
All in all, I had the feeling when leaving the venue that we should be disappointed that the court case as well as the other family members were less involved, in other words that it was not exploited farther than done here. In the defense of the filmmakers, I can assume that they tried to remain true to the events of the background court case, which was well-known in Belgium, and did not want to paraphrase on it to arrive at a more interesting scenario. The latter could have given us novel insights into how such a court case works out on those involved. They could have elaborated freely, adding a footnote "Based on true events."
Because of missed chances of upgrading the plot, digressing from the original court case as it was known in Belgium, my score comes down to 3/5. We don't get a chance to delve deeper in the motives of the protagonists, what they did and why they did it. We only touch their surface. It's a pity, as it could have been much better. They could have turned it into a "based on true events" story, cutting loose from the original events. My final conclusion is that the protagonists remain bleak and non-interesting, leaving us indifferent what happens to them.
The background court case is a high profile one, given journalists who are waiting 24/7 before their house, overwhelming them with questions at the gate. It gives rise to suspicions from my side that political elements were trying to steer in a certain direction, but that Francois did not give in as a matter of principle, while TPTB heightened the pressure until their (hidden) goal is reached, no matter what it does to the personal lives of the family involved.
It takes lots of time to unconfuse us and make clear which direction the plot is going to take, and suddenly it hits us that the case is less convoluted than I thought at first. In other words, an anticlimax. Before that, I felt a light but continuous tension throughout, letting us wonder which development or turn of event would be next. Tantalizing when one of my assumed plots (see above) was to come out. It did not, in my opinion, a missed chance to get the story to a higher level.
All in all, I had the feeling when leaving the venue that we should be disappointed that the court case as well as the other family members were less involved, in other words that it was not exploited farther than done here. In the defense of the filmmakers, I can assume that they tried to remain true to the events of the background court case, which was well-known in Belgium, and did not want to paraphrase on it to arrive at a more interesting scenario. The latter could have given us novel insights into how such a court case works out on those involved. They could have elaborated freely, adding a footnote "Based on true events."
Because of missed chances of upgrading the plot, digressing from the original court case as it was known in Belgium, my score comes down to 3/5. We don't get a chance to delve deeper in the motives of the protagonists, what they did and why they did it. We only touch their surface. It's a pity, as it could have been much better. They could have turned it into a "based on true events" story, cutting loose from the original events. My final conclusion is that the protagonists remain bleak and non-interesting, leaving us indifferent what happens to them.
Saw this at the Imagine film festival 2024 in Amsterdam. The plot itself may not be interesting or relevant, but it is shown in a beautiful way, yet not for the faint of heart, with lots of blood and gore. Even fatalities can be expected, so not everyone (euphemism alert) is still standing in the end. The supernatural twist in the end may not satisfy everyone, however, but the pentagram in the basement predicted that something bad was planned all along, and dark powers need dead corpses as an unwritten rule.
Outside normal arenas and without official rules, this type of wrestling can be very destructive, as we see here. The audience cheers, whatever happens, and doesn't mind open wounds, reams of blood, broken limbs, or other serious injuries. Previously, I always assumed that a lot of theater was involved when I saw it on TV. That may be so for the official wrestling matches, but what we watch here is beyond mercy for the losers. Moreover, it was planned from the outset by the event organizers that five fatally wounded were to be "produced" for the pentagram to complete.
Lucky for us, and for the tension we were waiting for, the division between winners and losers is not along the lines that were foreseen by the one who presided over the match. The visiting group of wrestlers was more creative and resourceful than we thought at first.
All in all, though I am not interested in this type of sport, it was interesting to watch this story and all its developments, most of which were unexpected and unplanned. The supernatural twist did not harm either to arrive at a 4/5 score for the audience award when leaving the venue.
Outside normal arenas and without official rules, this type of wrestling can be very destructive, as we see here. The audience cheers, whatever happens, and doesn't mind open wounds, reams of blood, broken limbs, or other serious injuries. Previously, I always assumed that a lot of theater was involved when I saw it on TV. That may be so for the official wrestling matches, but what we watch here is beyond mercy for the losers. Moreover, it was planned from the outset by the event organizers that five fatally wounded were to be "produced" for the pentagram to complete.
Lucky for us, and for the tension we were waiting for, the division between winners and losers is not along the lines that were foreseen by the one who presided over the match. The visiting group of wrestlers was more creative and resourceful than we thought at first.
All in all, though I am not interested in this type of sport, it was interesting to watch this story and all its developments, most of which were unexpected and unplanned. The supernatural twist did not harm either to arrive at a 4/5 score for the audience award when leaving the venue.
Saw this at the Imagine 2024 film festival in Amsterdam. It is not for the SciFi elements that I rank this movie 7 out of 10, but for the human dilemmas posed. Actually, I wanted to rate 8 out of 10, but it takes too long before we reach the core of the matter. It will let people lose interest before the real issues become clear. Not good, storytelling wise.
In essence, it is about how many lives of living humans you don't know you can take, when needed in exchange for the live of one man you know (your brother) and persistently want to get back. It starts easily when someone conspiring to rape our main protagonist Elsa, becomes the first candidate to be sacrificed in the race to obtain 5 living persons to trade for her brother lost in space. (Elsa severely damaged the attempting rapist with a chainsaw, rendering him unusable to host an alien.)
The next 3 are elderly people from the nursing home where Elsa works, most of them demented, so in some way a defendable act as a humane way out. So far so good. However, still three hours from the deadline, Elsa lets a man go who she picked up from the street (pushing a defective motorbike; offering to bring him home). While underway, the man spoke enthusiastically about his plans to open a restaurant, obviously a potentially useful member of society. It is a merciful thing to do, despite the narrow timeline for rescuing her brother...
The only SciFi involved is the sparse communications Elsa has with her brother in space, and with the five aliens around him. And related visuals showing where the brother is now. The brother seems genuine, as he tells a story out of their common past that only they know. The transfer of all five aliens is a prerequisite for bringing her brother back to earth, hence the chase for five humans to sacrifice, to be used as carrier for the aliens.
All in all, the slow burn may annoy some people, in addition to the fact that hardly any SciFi is involved in a story announced about a man lost in space. That raises expectations this movie won't satisfy. It takes some patience and some time, like what happened to me, to find out where it is all about.
In essence, it is about how many lives of living humans you don't know you can take, when needed in exchange for the live of one man you know (your brother) and persistently want to get back. It starts easily when someone conspiring to rape our main protagonist Elsa, becomes the first candidate to be sacrificed in the race to obtain 5 living persons to trade for her brother lost in space. (Elsa severely damaged the attempting rapist with a chainsaw, rendering him unusable to host an alien.)
The next 3 are elderly people from the nursing home where Elsa works, most of them demented, so in some way a defendable act as a humane way out. So far so good. However, still three hours from the deadline, Elsa lets a man go who she picked up from the street (pushing a defective motorbike; offering to bring him home). While underway, the man spoke enthusiastically about his plans to open a restaurant, obviously a potentially useful member of society. It is a merciful thing to do, despite the narrow timeline for rescuing her brother...
The only SciFi involved is the sparse communications Elsa has with her brother in space, and with the five aliens around him. And related visuals showing where the brother is now. The brother seems genuine, as he tells a story out of their common past that only they know. The transfer of all five aliens is a prerequisite for bringing her brother back to earth, hence the chase for five humans to sacrifice, to be used as carrier for the aliens.
All in all, the slow burn may annoy some people, in addition to the fact that hardly any SciFi is involved in a story announced about a man lost in space. That raises expectations this movie won't satisfy. It takes some patience and some time, like what happened to me, to find out where it is all about.