REVIEW: Athena [2022]

Rating: R | Runtime: 99 minutes
Release Date: September 23rd, 2022 (France/USA)
Studio: Netflix
Director(s): Romain Gavras
Writer(s): Elias Belkeddar, Romain Gavras & Ladj Ly

If you want to talk about a film for today’s fracturing political climate, look no further than Romain Gavras’ audaciously nihilistic Athena. Co-written with Ladj Ly and Elias Belkeddar, the story starts during the aftermath of the latest police killing of a thirteen-year-old Arab in a poor French neighborhood and the civil unrest that sparks in large part through the victim’s brother Karim (Sami Slimane) finally saying enough is enough. So, while his older, war hero brother Abdel (Dali Benssalah) seeks to quell the flames of retribution by holding a press conference at the police station upon hearing the commissioner’s guarantee of justice, Karim unleashes Hell.

Except, of course, that the police unleashed it first by killing an unarmed teenager. Karim’s violence is a response. Whether you agree with the methodology or not, you cannot deny that he should be enraged. It’s therefore impossible not to get wrapped up in an elaborate, ten-minute long take leading us through the crowd of onlookers for Abdel’s speech to find Karim lighting a Molotov cocktail before everything is consumed by the chaotic storming of the precinct to steal weapons and supplies before returning home to Athena. That’s where they set up barricades to disrupt the peace for as long as it takes young Idir’s murderers to be publicly identified.

Karim wants accountability no matter the cost since he’s done watching his people have to always pay the price. Abdel wants cooler heads to prevail, believing that his presence can bridge the disconnect by reconciling his duty to family with his duty to a government that seems diametrically opposed to its salvation. There’s also another brother (Ouassini Embarek’s Moktar) choosing a third side—self-preservation—due to his position as a gangster looking to protect his guns and drugs from the impending raid Karim is bringing down upon them. Add a known terrorist hiding out in the housing complex (Alexis Manenti’s Sébastien) and anything becomes possible once perception, prejudice, and purpose collide.

Gavras and company know that this is all you need for Greek tragedy. A spark between a troubled family with combative allegiances and an oppressive force quick to dismiss any act of protest as an act of aggression so the cycle never ends. How far will Karim go for his justice? Has Abdel lost all credibility with his community due to the uniform he wears? What will abducting a police officer (Anthony Bajon’s Jérôme) do to the already incendiary atmosphere? Put them all together and watch them react according to their characters and their positions within the prevailing power structure. Good and evil proves moot. This is about refusing to be silenced or ignored.

Where so many films would choose a side, Gavras simply depicts the reality that burning down the world is easy. Police brutality. Guerilla warfare. Conspiracy theories. They all work in tandem to perpetuate the societal imbalance that ensures today’s increasing volatility can’t be put back in the box. With long takes, extreme close-ups, and handheld camera-work, we’re dropped into this fight to witness the intensity and knee-jerk reactionary impulses that risk making things even worse. We feel for these brothers and the conflicting ideologies separating them. We feel for the mounting tragedies that will eventually destroy those walls to center pure emotion above reason. And we watch with mouths agape at the stunning revelations that prove how our collective anger opens us up to manipulation in anarchy’s name. What’s scarier than that?