Gela Babluani
13 Tzameti

It's no secret: Italian cinema is in a disastrous state of crisis (despite some recent productions that could bring a glimmer of hope). But this should not lead, by our producers, to a damnatio memoriae of certain foreign gems like 13 tzameti (2005), the first feature film by Franco-Georgian director Géla Babluani.

Sébastien is a laborer who discovers that his current employer has received a letter, a train ticket, and a hotel room reservation, ensuring him a substantial financial gain. Upon the employer's overdose death, Sébastien takes possession of the envelope and assumes the man's place. Thus, he finds himself entangled in a horrific game of death: a Russian roulette.

Géla Babluani, with this small but shining gem, teaches us how to make an old-school thriller, thanks to a black and white that recalls the old '50s noirs like The Killing by Stanley Kubrick, although, unlike Kubrick's masterpiece, the narrative is very linear: the action is narrated in an extremely simple and straightforward way. After a beginning that may appear tedious at times, the story starts to engage the viewer until they find themselves completely immersed in it, feeling part of this madness. The merit is largely due to Babluani's direction which, at first glance, seems like a mere exercise of technique for its own sake, but then one realizes that everything is designed to create suspense and tension in the viewer. A clear example is the roulette scenes: the same actions are always repeated (load, spin, aim, and shoot), the only music is that of the revolvers' hammers, the rotating drums, and the shots, and the camera movements are very slow. However, the action does not seem slow thanks to the editing by Noémie Moreau that gives the film a pressing rhythm.
The symbolic choice of the number 13 is brilliant: for some, it brings bad luck, for others, good fortune (as is the case for the protagonist, number 13). In fact, in the mad game of Russian roulette, the difference between a dead man and a living one is luck.
The theme tackled by the Franco-Georgian, who is also the screenwriter, is exploitation: wealthy people get richer by playing with the lives of desperate individuals, willing to do anything to improve their situation. And the director, in my opinion, leaves the conclusions to the viewer; I see a positive-negative dichotomy (also present in the number 13): is it possible to stop exploitation? Or is it a curse destined to endure? The answer lies in the mind of the one watching the film: Babluani does not tell us whether the police manage to arrest the villains or not. What he tells us, instead, is that the exploited can never triumph over the exploiters: indeed, the brother of number 6, an exploiter, kills Sébastien, the exploited one, who won the game by eliminating number 6 himself.

P.S. The rating that will be displayed is 4/5, but in reality, for me, it's more of a 3.5/5 film.