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13 Tzameti
Palm Pictures


7.3

based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 8 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring George Babluani, Philippe Passon, Aurélien Recoing, Pascal Bongard, Vania Vilers, Nicolas Pignon, Olga Legrand, and Christophe Van de Velde

In the middle of nowhere, Sebastien (Babluani), a 22-year-old man, is repairing the house of old Jean- François Godon (Passon). But the elderly man dies without having paid his employee. Sebastien finds an envelope belonging to Godon and containing a strange invitation: a ticket train and a hotel reservation. Sebastien decides to steal Godon's identity and to get into the train. So begins a strange game. The young man discovers a terrifying world where men bet on other men's lives. (Film Forum)

GENRE(S):	Foreign \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Géla Babluani
DIRECTED BY:	Géla Babluani
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 13, 2007 Theatrical: July 28, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, B/W
ORIGIN:	France / Georgia
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Also known as "13 (Tzameti)"; Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema - Dramatic), 2006 Sundance Film Festival; Luigi De Laurentiis Award, 2005 Venice Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The language and the landscape is French, but the sensibility and style is unmistakably Eastern European.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Starts slowly but builds, Hitchcock-style, to a terrifying crescendo. And don't fool yourself into thinking you know what's going to happen.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

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."

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A stylish and unnerving thriller that sucks you into surreal scenes of horror with the chilly confidence of a nightmare.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Take 13 Tzameti for what it is: a tightly screwed shocker, a suspense tour de force that proceeds through a harrowing chain of events with alarming confidence.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

The film's simplicity and intensity are aided by the crisp black-and-white photography of Tariel Meliava. Director Babluani's greenness shows itself in the ending, which is weak, but the film nevertheless stays with you.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Creating a mood that suggests an unholy mix of Czech novelist Franz Kafka, American pulp fictionist Jim Thompson and French heist moviemaker Jean-Pierre Melville, Babluani's story is about the perils of get-rich-quick schemes.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Shot in neorealist black-and-white, it opens like a gritty slice of social drama, then takes a sharp turn into bleak, existential horror.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The resulting jolts add up to one unforgettably surreal nightmare. Just be sure your heart can handle any surprises headed your way.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Géla Babluani is unmistakably a first-timer, and his debut project is raw and rough-edged. But he aces the way simple images can make the most of a simple story.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The work of both Babluani brothers is weirdly stilled and mature, already devoid of the need to show off--serves only to thicken the horror.

Variety Deborah Young

Shot like the grunge version of a '50s noir thriller from France (or Soviet Georgia), the black-and-white 13 (Tzameti) turns into a shocker of Tarantino proportions in protracted sequences of explosive violence that leave viewers quaking.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Although it's likely too stark for everyone, 13 Tzameti offers a mind-blowing experience for anyone willing to go along for the ride.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

One wonders what its objective is other than the cynical obliteration of all hope.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

13 (Tzameti) is an existential horror film, a violent prank, a metaphor for modern Europe, and a first-time director's startling calling card.

Premiere Ethan Alter

13 Tzameti is certainly nightmarish, but it's the kind of nightmare that fades instead of lingering on in the memory.

Village Voice Rob Nelson

The artiest entry in the ever growing torture-movie genre, this playfully wicked French thriller from twentysomething provocateur Gela Babluani blasts its way into your brainpan with the help of black-and-white widescreen cinematography whose striking but smooth textures better suit the upwardly mobile auteur than his poor protagonist.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

With its icy cynicism and desolate settings, the film evokes the work of the young Roman Polanski in his sadistic trickster mode.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

For me, the meticulous style, the fascination with ritualized (and ludicrous) violence and the film-geek self-referentiality all seem like markers of a film made by a young man, for other young men. If I were 23, and full to the brim with dark-hearted existentialism, I might love it too.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Not for the faint-hearted.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

We are meant to think about a society that revels in this moral pit. But all that puzzled me was why an audience would need a film to immerse it in wanton, speciously motivated death when the television news provides so much of it every day.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

French art thriller 13 Tzameti has a literal hair-trigger premise, yet it's so lacking in human dimensions that it creates virtually no suspense.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It's so easy to be seduced by technique... What a disappointment, then, to find the technique pressed into the service of little substance and lots of fashionable cynicism.

Washington Post Adriane Quinlan

These actors move with the labored blocking of a high school play.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

13 (Tzameti) might seem allegorical, but it’s too cynically concerned with what works as entertainment to offer larger truths about human existence.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it an8:
If you've ever laid down a heavy bet: let's say the sport is horse racing, and your animal is trailing the leader; your wager takes precedence over the health of that horse who's kicking your horse's ass. You become a complete moron and a-hole. "13 Tzameti" can't accurately be called an extrapolation on sports wagering if the competition that Sebastien(George Babluani) finds himself entangled with is based on the testimony of a survivor who participated in such an event. Like a little bitch, I covered my eyes every time the next round would commence. It's absolutely horrifying. The disconnect between the dispassionate spectatorship of these formally-attired gentlemen, and the brutal spectacle of the "game" is downright chilling and flabbergasting. This is horror that a genre picture like "Black Christmas" can never match. "13 Tzameti" does a brilliant job of leading us to believe that Sebastien will be the most amoral figure in the film. Needless to say, he's a babe in the woods; resoundingly overmatched. "13 Tzameti" tantalizes the audience with this fundamental question: Is Sebastien's participation in the proceedings a crime, or all just part of the game?" In the last scene, "13 Tzameti" puts one of the two possible answers in its proper context.

Fred T. gave it a9:
Kudos to the Babluani brothers, true artists. Although he might have followed through with the existential denoument his film seems to require, by forcing him to live in the hell of his conscience, that's a mere quibble. this is a remarkably assured and compelling film.

Arman R. gave it an8:
This is a complete Horror movie

David B. gave it a4:
Beautifully shot thriller which points to some potenitally interesting material but doesn't come close to exploring the dark side of human-kind. Once we realize what is going to happen, it is a long haul to the end because its obvious our hero will survive. The final denoument is a complete let-down - its as if the filmakers didn't know how to end the film or deal with the potential shown in the first thrid of the movie. Very dissapointing.

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13 Tzameti Palm Pictures

13 Tzameti
Palm Pictures