Captifs

The film starts in Yugoslavia, crosses borders into Kosovo and ends at the back of a UN jeep.

War is perpetual. That is obvious and that is also the message in a cage where there is no mercy, no compassion or respect for life when the rush of war takes over. It is an imperative that it be so, such is the obstinate nature of war and 'Captifs'.

Director Yaan Gozlan's first feature length moves you with atmosphere, sound and baffling and hypnotic camera work. sometimes it moves you inside out and you can also watch it happening (derealisation in films).

'Captifs' is like a kid casually telling a story and suddenly everything gets very serious, extremely uncomfortable and horrific. Some scenes make you want to look away, but you don't; such is the pull of this film.

The film has it's faults but I'd rather stick to the film as whole; I'd rather tell you the good and you figure the bad for yourself, or maybe not. That's why.

In the end it is, in my opinion, telling you how it feels to be at war. How it must feel to not be forgiven, to see madness in the oppressor's eye and then, eventually to start relating to the look.

It left something back. Something that cannot be shed or shaken off.

If you like this movie, you should also watch a movie where band of jewish soldiers capture german civilians during WW2, takes them in the working camp and at the end kills them in the gas chamber while jewish doctors do experiments on them.

In the former Yugoslavia, the French medical team formed by Carole (Zoé Félix), Samir (Arié Elmaleh) and Dr. Mathias (Eric Savin) is returning from Kosovo to Paris by truck. They find a road block and the soldier tells that the army had found mines on the road and is deactivating them; therefore they should wait three hours to follow their journey.

Dr. Mathias suggests Carole to drive through a secondary road and they get lost. They ask for direction in an isolated house and sooner a van intercepts their truck in a lonely road. They are abducted and arrested in dirty cells but fed. When Samir is removed from the cell, they find the true intention of the kidnappers.

I do not know how many movies similar to "Captifs" that I have recently seen. Only in Brazil, three different films have been released with the same Brazilian title in the last years ("Captivity" (2007); "Captifs" (2010); and "Open House" (2010)). I was discussing with a friend of mine about the lack of new ideas and screenplays in the cinema industry, reason why for so many remakes and films with the same storyline.

Back to "Captifs", despite the well-known storyline, the film has good acting, make-up and keeps the tension until the very last scene. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Cativeiro" ("The Captivity")

Not bad. Decent plot, though fairly conventional for a horror movie, and reminiscent of Turistas. Gritty direction. Short duration, which is good.

Performances are OK.

I randomly watched this without any real idea of what the film was supposed to be. In fact I was hoping for the "twist" to be something more surreal or supernatural (like a portal to hell or something), but unfortunately that was not the case.

For one thing, the trope of Serbia being this dark and horrible place (and Eastern countries in general) is tired, shallow and inaccurate. There's some inconsistencies another user pointed out, one big obvious being the "bad guy" with a Serbian tattoo.

Acting is decent, filmwork itself is quite good as well, but the whole thing comes across as rushed, half-assed and predictable. While I wouldn't call this "French Hostel", it's on the same level as far as quality goes. Stereotypical characters, obvious "twists and turns", nothing terribly memorable.

In my opinion, it's particularly disrespectful to base a film on horrible real events and just sort-of switch the characters' ethnicities around. The main premise could still be based on real events but would've worked better had they maybe picked a completely different location or with less focus on the characters' nationalities.

Nothing special here, might as well watch an M Night Shalalalam if you're in the mood for something tepid and mediocre.