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Le Serpent aux Mille Coupures
Thousand Cuts
Belgium / France 2017
produced by Capture The Flag Films, Nexus Factory, Umedia
directed by Eric Valette
starring Tomer Sisley, Terence Yin, Pascal Greggory, Stéphane Debac, Erika Sainte, Carlos Cabra, Cédric Ido, Gérald Laroche, Victoire De Block, Guillaume Destrem, Jean-Jacques Lelté, Stéphane Henon, Clémence Bretécher, Marcos Adamantiadis, Marie Catrix, Charles François, Alex Moreu Garriga, Didier Gesquière, Alexandre Picot, Vincent Santamaria
screenplay by Hervé Albertazzi (as DOA), Eric Valette, based on the novel by Hervé Albertazzi (as DOA), music by Christophe Boulanger, Mike Theis
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Initially, it seems a drifter (Tomer Sisley) just had a motorbike
accident in the wrong place at the wrong time, as right next to the
accident site, a bunch of Columbians wanted to make a big drug deal - and
when he popped up as involuntary witness, they were about to kill him. But
got killed themselves. Then the drifter makes it to a farmhouse nearby and
takes the family of three hostage, forcing them to treat his wounds, feed
him, and warning them against reporting him to the authorities, as
apparently he's a terrorist on the run. Yet he treats the family alright,
and especially sees to it that the daughter of the house (Victoire De
Block) is not traumatized. That said, that family doesn't give much of a
fuck about authorities either, since the man of the house, Omar (Cédric
Ido), is black and has been subject to numerous racist attacks (including
the killing of his lifestock), and the police has done exactly nothing.
There's a problem though, one of the killed Columbians was a powerful
crime kingpin's son, and that man now sends in his fiercest hitman, Tod
(Terence Yin), to clean up. And cleaning up for Tod means to leave many
dead people - regardless if they were involved or not, and includine
policemen - in his wake, and he soon closes in on said farmhouse, as does
the police, pretty much following Tod's trail of murder. And then there
are the local racists who think Omar is somehow responsible for all the
deaths, and now they want to lynch him ... Thousand Cuts
is a pretty powerful thriller that really pushes when it comes to violence
and leaves little to imagination. And mostly, the film is well-paced
enough to keep the audience on the edge of their seats most of the time,
and even when the action has taken a break. Plus, there are some really
impressive performances in this one. That said, the film falls short of
being a masterpiece: Basically the plot is too complex in the beginning to
culminate in too simplistic a climax, some plot details are just too
far-fetched or too blunt, and while well-told and everything, the whole
thing isn't really wholly original. It's still a very good watch, just not
without its shortcomings.
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