Athena
Hours after the tragic death of their youngest brother in unexplained circumstances, three siblings have their lives thrown into chaos.
- Released: 2022-09-09
- Runtime: 97 minutes
- Genre: Action, Drama, Thrillers
- Stars: Dali Benssalah, Anthony Bajon, Alexis Manenti, Ouassini Embarek, Sami Slimane, Radostina Rogliano, Karim Lasmi, Mehdi Abdelhakmi, Tarek Haddaji, Guy Donald Koukissa, Birane Ba, Sophie-Marie Larrouy
- Director: Romain Gavras
Comments
- michalakisgeorgiou - 17 December 2023
Not the Netflix movie you expect
Overall it was a nice movie with great cinematography and performances. The aesthetic was also successful it sets you in the mood from the very start of the film.
However, I felt that the plot only scratched the surface and didn't get too deep. This made some scenes, especially the last with the building, to not really make sense.
I believe that, if each characters' manifestos were more thought, or at least shown more it might have helped.
But still a very good and thought provoking film with many great scenes in terms of editing and direction (especially those long one-shots)!
P. S I also think that the very final scene with the extremists shouldn't have been included. It would have been way better if we didn't know who did it, as it adds nothing to the story. - semihmbo - 10 April 2023
Intense movie
The film begins very intensely and you begin to sympathize from the very first second. Sometimes I asked myself how they portrayed all of this perfectly. Totally beyond words, the storyline and scenes are worthy of applause!
Also love that they showed afterwards how it went behind the scenes. This just shows how much work and effort went behind this film.
They all apparently weren't stunts either which made it even more exciting for a while. I made the storyline seem similar to the films of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, don't ask me why but I got this feeling. Should this director release another similar film like this I will definitely watch it! - codenamebigb - 7 January 2023
A movie making masterpiece
A masterpiece of movie making. The most complex sequence shots I have seen. The movie depicts the events of a civil unrest after a boy is killed by police. Mindblowing effort. Camera, sound design, music, performances are all super. Its a small story. Sure to leave its mark on viewers. Making is everything. That is all it needs. The story revolves around 4 brothers from the neighborhood of Athena. Youngest one dies at the hands of police and a civil unrest is on. Its a battle between belief, justice and hope. The first 11 minute sequence is going to blow your mind that closes with a damn good frame backed up by great music. - mrashtastic89 - 28 November 2022
A riot
Athena is one of the most surprising films I've seen this year and I think it's safe to say I ended up loving it, I didn't know what to expect going in and this film wonderfully surprised me, while it's basically a retelling of the year between George Floyd's death and the trial in 2021, but it managed to put a few twists and turns in also.
It's a visual spectacle with a brilliant atmosphere, beautiful cinematography and truly bone cracking fight scenes, our main character, Abdel, is brilliant, Dali Benssalah put on a truly raw and powerful performance perfectly portraying the pain we all felt during the time of violence and riots.
The musical score is absolutely wonderful, wow, it's some of the best I've heard since Causeway, Athena manages to give us a driven character story while also having a somewhat breathtaking ending to pull it all together, and I'm proud to say I loved it.
Athena gets an A- - chtproductshare - 28 October 2022
Great cinematography but that's it. It's like his music video of "Kanye & Jay Z"
This movie was like a music videos showreel. Romain Gavras did his best to show us great cinematic shots, they were long and perfect shots, maybe it took them so much retakes to be perfect... but the script was so flat, the emotions in the movie were too many times cringe. I've missed a great conversations between the characters in the film. Actually if you watch to the director's music video of Kanye West and Jay Z of the song "No Church In The Wild" you can literally see exactly same scenes... with the horse, with poor kids fighting police officers etc. Really.. so much effort into cinematography and the script flopped so hard... - mtheterminat - 12 October 2022
Absolutely worth watching!
I saw this movie in a review of David Hain, who highly recommended it. And I totally agree.
The first scene already tells us about the strengths of this movie. A perfect eleven minute onetake with the right music tells us very much about the characters and introduces us to the beginning of hell on earth. The great camera is maybe the main reason, why this movie is worth your watchtime. Over the whole movie the viewer gets a shocking view inside a society full of violence, hate and grief. The movie never really decides who is to blame for this circle of violence (the ones that started, the citizens or the police?) but leaves this decision to the viewer, which is another great aspect. Unfortunately some scenes, fitting to the directors (Romain Gavras) background as a music video director, some scenes feel overinscenated and kinda like a music video instead of a fitting film scene. But luckily feelings like this are quite rare in the one and a half hour, the movie takes.
The story has many parallels to the 2019 movie "Les miserables" by Ladj Ly. Of course this does not come from nowhere, since Ladj Ly was involved in the script. What the script does very well is introducing us to the characters, giving each of them depth and making us as the viewers feel with the characters. The story never bored me and the little plottwist before the ending is well done. The big problem of the script is the lack of feeling for the characters decision. Of course i have never been in similar situations like that, but i dont think, the main character would (without any hints he could think in this way) change his opinion so quick.
The acting is pretty good, but not the best i have ever seen. This is mostly not the actors fault, but rather because they dont get to much emotions to act. If hell is on earth, you wont be happy. In one or two scenes maybe it looks a little bit overacted, but as i wrote above: I have never been in simillar situations, i dont know, if this is really overacted.
So long story short: This movie is very special because of the great pictures it delivers the viewer. In combination with well timed music this movie is worth to be watched, if you are able to on the biggest possible screen you have.
