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High-stakes Russian roulette

13 Tzameti is cut from the same cloth as the humans-hunted-for-sport classic The Most Dangerous Game - and from that early talkie's many subsequent remakes and rip-offs, including John Woo's Hard Target. But in the case of this beautifully spare French noir (literally noir: it's in black and white), the prey aren't set loose to be hunted by wealthy sickos.

    by Steven Rea, INQUIRER MOVIE CRITIC
    Published 

13 Tzameti is cut from the same cloth as the humans-hunted-for-sport classic The Most Dangerous Game - and from that early talkie's many subsequent remakes and rip-offs, including John Woo's Hard Target.

But in the case of this beautifully spare French noir (literally noir: it's in black and white), the prey aren't set loose to be hunted by wealthy sickos.

Instead, the wealthy sickos stand around a fancy manse in the middle of nowhere and place bets on quaking men with revolvers, who form a circle, one bullet in each gun, and are forced to play a mass game of Russian roulette.

13 Tzameti was written and directed by the French-trained twentysomething Georgian, Gela Babluani. It stars the filmmaker's younger brother, Georges, as Sebastien, a fresh-faced immigrant working a construction job at a weird old guy's house. When the man dies (of a morphine overdose), Sebastien scoops up a train ticket and hotel reservation designated for the deceased - having overheard that there's the possibility of a big payoff.

From there, 13 Tzameti becomes a tricky cat-and-mouse game, as a band of tough, terse cops tracks the young man, and the organizers of the high-stakes homicide match debate Sebastien's candidacy as one of the shooters. (He is given the number 13, hence the title - tzameti is Georgian for thirteen.) What happens next is brutal.

The film is exquisitely simple, and exceptionally tough, and its monochromatic visuals - and cast of fascinating, hard-bitten faces - make it impossible not to watch, even when events become close to unbearable.

Director Babluani has already caught the eye of Hollywood, and has been awarded the dubious prize of getting to do an English-language remake of his own striking debut. Those redos never seem to work out right. Catch the original.

Contact movie critic Steven Rea

at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.

13 Tzameti

*** 1/2 (out of four stars)

Written and directed by Gela Babluani. With Georges Babluani, Philippe Passon and Aurélien Recoing. In French with subtitles.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 mins.

Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (violence, adult themes)

Playing at: Ritz Bourse