Athena (2022 film)

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Athena
File:Athena (2022 film).png
Official release poster
Directed by Romain Gavras
Screenplay by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Romain Gavras
  • Ladj Ly
  • Elias Belkeddar
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by GENER8ION
Cinematography Matias Boucard
Edited by Cherifi Akram Mohamed Yasser
Production
company
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  • Iconoclast
  • Lyly Films
Distributed by Netflix
Release dates
 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • 2 September 2022 (2022-09-02) (Venice)
  • 23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) (Netflix)
Country France
Language <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • French
  • Arabic

Athena is a 2022 French action drama film directed by Romain Gavras. The film stars Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek and Alexis Manenti.

Athena had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on 9 September 2022, where it competed for the Golden Lion award,[1] and was released on 23 September 2022 by Netflix.

Synopsis

Set in a French banlieue, the plot concerns the chaos erupting in a neighborhood known as Athena in the wake of the brutal killing of Idir, focusing on the plight of the deceased's brothers Karim, Moktar, and Abdel. The brothers are of Algerian origin with one a decorated soldier in the French Army, another a drug dealer and the third a community leader, all outraged at the racist murder of Idir.

Cast

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Production

The film is an Iconoclast and Lyly production.[6] It was shot in 2021 in the Parisian suburb of Évry-Courcouronnes.[7] It features dialogue in French and Arabic.[6]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.[8][9] Distributed by Netflix, it was released in select cinemas on 9 September 2022, followed by a streaming release on 23 September 2022.[2][4]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 50 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Although it may arguably fail to do justice to its deeper themes, Athena makes for electrifying, hard-hitting viewing in the moment."[10] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter summed up the film as "nerve-rattling, intense and explosive", deeming it to be "a live grenade, beginning in full ignition mode and dialing up its intensity throughout with virtuoso technique".[3]

Todd McCarthy of Deadline Hollywood described the film as "a torrent, an inundation, a cascade of rage, fury and frustration over the realities of life for a particular group of French families" that "grabs you by the throat and barely allows you a moment for a gasp of air".[12]

David Ehrlich of IndieWire rated the film 'C+', considering that it is "just a really cool movie about a country that's ready to catch fire", that "would have been more harrowing and successful had it fully owned the courage of [the anger of the dispossessed]".[4]

Tim Grierson of Screen Daily considered that Athena "works better as a brash, immersive action spectacle than a thought-provoking political thriller".[13]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, deeming it to be a film highlighted by "a sensational opening", yet also losing "its dramatic shape" afterwards.[2]

Lucile Commeaux of France Culture considers this film to be "dishonest and bad, in every sense of the word", a "big clip released on a platform that aestheticizes the aftermath of an alleged police blunder", with a "hyper-artificial structure [that] hardly maintains interest".[14]

Sandra Onana of Libération, who denounces a "deluge of stylized violence" and "non-existent characters", judges that "Romain Gavras stuns the spectator with a political casualness that forces disrespect".[15]

In Le Point, Jean-Luc Wachthausen wonders "Is it still fiction when such a crude daily reality, which has become familiar to millions of French people, is rendered?".[16]

Political reactions

French right-wing politicians, such as Gilbert Collard, member of Éric Zemmour's party, reacted as soon as the teaser was released, talking about the film as a harbinger of a "civil war" to come.[17]

Awards

Award Year Category Result Ref.
Venice Film Festival 2022 Golden Lion Nominated [18]
Premio Arca Cinema Giovani Won
Cinema for UNICEF Won

See also

References

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External links

  • Athena on NetflixLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
  • Athena at IMDbLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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