Athena presents itself as a Greek tragedy and, like a Greek tragedy, Romain Gavras’ film aims to be universal. But if the French director’s feature film has been broadcast since November 23 in more than thirty countries on Netflix, it does not entirely convince the international press.
Some praise his pictorial staging of violence in a French peripheral district caught up in the revolt. “Gavras’ cinema is technically impressive”, salute for example New York Times. But that’s not enough to hide the story’s lack of depth.
Maximum tension
The film starts with a bang. “It’s spectacular and immersive, with a sensational prologue,” rejoices the Guardian. The long sequence shot that introduces the plot puts the viewer “in a state of maximum tension, which then intensifies”, note the New York Times.
White-hot by a video where we see men in police uniform coldly killing a teenager in their neighborhood, young people storm a police station. Their leader, Karim (Sami Slimane), – one of the victim’s brothers – demands that the murderers be brought to justice, otherwise he will organize the uprising of the city, Athena.
His eldest, Abdel (Dali Benssalah), a member of the French army, initially calls for calm. “The names of the main characters allude to the biblical brothers Cain and Abel”, note the Argentine daily The chronicler. Except the siblings also include Moktar (Ouassini Embarek), a drug dealer trying to save his traffic amid the chaos.
video game decor
With her “technical virtuosity” and its representation of a “civil war” generated by “the inequalities of the French system”, Athena “has a lot in common with Wretched”, notes the site of the Spanish radio Chain BE. Its director, Ladj Ly, also co-wrote the screenplay for the Netflix production with Romain Gavras.
Nevertheless, for the Los Angeles Times, Athena “does not achieve the same power, in part because its political purpose feels like an alibi, a prop in a story that cares less about characters and the vast array of human experiences they represent than about its own virtuosity formal”.
The Guardian does not say anything else: “Athena is frank and daring in its own way: this opening sequence is a feat. But there is little human complexity and authenticity in the drama that follows.” To make matters worse, the visual appeal of the film loses its charm over the minutes.
“Some sequences are striking, but after a while they become repetitive”, underlines the New York Times. “Athena looks more like the setting of a video game than a real place. There is no modulation: almost every scene ends with the howls of an argument or an explosion.” Car “violence always ends badly, the film tells us”, relief Chain BE. A rather short message for a Greek tragedy.