Product Details

• Actors: Aurélien Recoing, Jo Prestia, George Babluani, Pascal Bongard, Fred Ulysse
• Directors: Géla Babluani
• Producers: 13 Tzameti
• Format: Import, PAL, Subtitled
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000JDA3R8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #575,441 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, SYNOPSIS: This diabolical thriller, filmed in inky black and white, is as cold and sharp as razor blades stored in a subzero freezer. The director and screenwriter Gela Babluani stars as Sebastien, a lean and hungry roofer in his early 20's from Georgia, the former Soviet republic, living in France. After surreptitiously pocketing a mysterious letter to a drug addict who dies of an overdose, he follows its directions to a secluded manor much like the site of the masked orgies in "Eyes Wide Shut." Here he finds himself compelled to participate in a sophisticated variation of Russian roulette in which gamblers place bets on who will live and who will die in ritualized round-robin shootings; the hair-raising game culminates in a duel. The movie offers the ultimate comment on the depraved male appetite for dangerous thrills. It's extreme sports times 10, realized with the ruthless, smirking sang-froid of early Roman Polanski. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, ...13 Tzameti

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 13 Tzameti, November 13, 2006

By 

Zachro (Seattle,WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13 Tzameti [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

When I first heard about this movie,honestly,didn't think much.What could have been so new in the kind of story?...Yeah.
The creator of this film is my fellow countryman and I just had natural interest to see it.And now I say only this:-the director is the one,who absolutely knows where he is heading,and he is dragging you along,untill you fill a taste in your mouth.Simplisity,greatness.
Cast act is solid.Always pleased to see such a piece of work.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick to exit, long to remember..., October 13, 2006

By 

Remy Trahant (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 13 Tzameti [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

I caught this film the very last showing of its brief 6-day stint at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Conveniently located six blocks from my apartment. I had asked some of the ticket-takers about it the week before when I saw A Scanner Darkly, and they all maintained it was dangerously compelling.
Why this had such limited distribution here is a mystery. For an end-of-the-summer release, it almost totally eclipsed about 100% of any action-thriller type swill that had been the steady offering of the big studio garbage-dispenser since early January. But I really think it's a hard-as-nails film and if you are recalcitrant to watch violent films, stay away. Otherwise, indulge in a sick and mesmerizing story.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretentious and ultimately Pointless, February 18, 2007

By 

VoiceOver (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13 Tzameti [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

The rumour mill was on overtime in conjunction to this movie as to its supposed bleak expressionism, intensity and cold harshness. I trusted the critics for once and blindly bought the movie. I thought it was rather disappointing.
The story is simply about a young man getting mixed up as a contestant in a rather sick variety of russian roulette, held in some house in the French countryside, his only motives in doing so being curiosity and expecting a shortcut in scoring a lot of money. That's it, where is the deep meaning behind this that I keep hearing about? The lengths to which men are prepared to go? Hardly a revelation I'd think, comnsidering the world we're living in, where we see the day to day horrors on the news that make what the contestants in this movie go through look like a picknick.

What came to mind in my case was the famous Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter, but at least there it had a point: A man tortured by his memories of captivity during the Vietnam war loses himself and his best friend tries to save him and fulfill his promise to not leave him behind, in vain however. Now thát had meaning and a dramatic context that personally moved me deeply, because of the way the humanity and at the same time the tragedy of its loss were depicted.

In 13 Tzameti, it's simply the urge for a quick buck that drives the main protagonist and so I hardly cared whatever happened to him.
The side story line of a police investigation into the clandestine gatherings went nowhere and didn't contribute anything.
The reason I still give the movie 2 stars is its beautiful black&white cinematography.