The French Revolution may have been bourgeois, but it needed the support of the masses, mobilized by famine and social injustice, to take on the right proportions. And the French are perfectly able to radically mobilize against the authorities. In the history books, in the TV news and in the movies, we see how the ferocious spirit of a nation is always ready to rise up against situations they consider unfair.
In “Athena” we have an uprising of hundreds of young people living in an apartment complex in Paris after a 13-year-old teenager of Algerian origin was killed by the police. In a film by Romain Gavras, which refers to the context of “Laen” or “Hatred”, a 1995 film by Mathieu Kassovitz starring Vincent Cassel (same as “Irreversible”), where a young Muslim is also killed by the police.
But if Laen takes place 24 hours after a popular uprising, then it follows three young rebels roaming the city. In Athena, the conflict itself is explored. In Gavras’ film, the tension begins from the first minutes of the film, shot in just one take of more than 10 minutes, without cuts. And it is with kicks in the doors and without subtleties that the action movie captures the viewer from the very first minutes.
A short feature film of just 90 minutes, Athena is full of rage, action, tension and chaos from start to finish. Tragic, barbaric and uncomfortable as a throat clearing, it follows two brothers, Karim and Abdel, who have different opinions on how to react to the death of their 13-year-old younger brother. Abdel is a decorated soldier who served France in Mali and wants to wait until justice is served in the country’s own system. Karim, on the other hand, rallies hundreds of young people to Athena to avenge his brother’s death. And they declare war on the authorities thrown into the police station with a Molotov cocktail, while the press is recording interviews there.
This is followed by scenes of pursuit, police siege of an apartment complex and numerous clashes. Gavras, who directs television commercials and music videos such as MVD’s “Bad Girls,” has a knack for painting canvas aesthetically and offers beautiful scenes of explosions, fireworks, and fights. Particularly mesmerizing is the particular scene in which a group of policemen invade a condominium and are surrounded by young people, showing a real pyrotechnic spectacle, more like an image of comets crossing space.
But it’s not just about aesthetics. The story is well written and makes sense despite not having much dialogue or discussion. At one point, the press speculated that the teenager might have been killed by a far-right group dressed as police officers. But the warriors of Athena, more Spartan, want to put the criminal on the guillotine.
With a nervous camera and long scenes, the film only had 163 cuts to give the viewer the feeling of walking down the burning corridors of a condominium without batting an eyelid. The soundtrack works well to enhance the dramatic content of the images.
An opera about political polarization, police violence, racism and social inequality, Athena showcases Gavras’ rise as a director in his third feature film and offers the viewer an action movie with substance and an important thought proposition, as Hannah Arendt would say, the banalization of evil.
Movie: Athena
Direction: Romain Gavras
Also: 2022
Genre: Thriller / Action
Use: 10/10
