Call it the first law of Netflix, or of the platform movie. Within a minute,or at most two, something violent has to happen in a new title. Something thatforces the viewer to look through, instead of scrolling through theincreasingly blurry range of subcategories.
Director Romain Gavras (41) and screenwriter Ladj Ly (44) were determined tohonor this law with Athens , their tragedy inflated to war-film proportionsabout an uprising in the French suburb, which will premiere on the pay channelon Friday. The apparently uninterrupted and fabulously filmed opening scenelasts a good ten minutes. The toss of a Molotov cocktail heralds the stormingof a police station, whereupon the young perpetrators barricaded themselves ina captured police van like a medieval fortress. quarter hurry, waving theFrench flag. Because the whole thing was filmed with a refrigerator-sized Imaxcamera, the image is Hollywood-worthy blockbuster -quality. At the sametime, the way in which people navigate between the people in the swirlingmasses make it seem as if they are turning handheld.
Simple question to the filmmakers, who queue up in Venice for a conversationwith the press, a day after the world premiere of Athens. How could theyfilm this like that? ‘Blood, sweat and tears’, sums up Gavras. ‘We firstrehearsed for months, with actors and a small camera, to understand how thechoreography would work with the actors. And then we started adding elements,step by step: the extras, the fireworks. We only got well after take fifteen.I think we needed about 25 for the opening scene. With all the explosions,yes, every time. We worked on the details for each take. Sometimes we had agreat shot, but there was just that one extra who went wrong or tried to getinto the shot. Or then the actor couldn’t get his motorcycle helmet off, rightat the end of the otherwise perfectly executed choreography of the take. Thathappened to us twice.’
Ladj Ly and Romain Gavras.Image WireImage
Netflix provided 15 million euros in budget: little for an American actionfilm, generous for a French production. Gavras: ‘We wanted to make everythingreal. Even with the highest budget for computer effects you still feel that itis not real. When my daughter watches a Marvel movie, I hear her say all thetime: CGI, CGI ( computer-generated imagery , red. ), fake, fake. You alsoknow with such a superhero movie that what you see is impossible, whileeverything you see in Athens is possible. The camera is everywhere. And byfilming in this way you give urgency to what you see. By the way: it’s alsojust more fun for the director to work like that.’
Gavras’ father is Costa-Gavras, the now 89-year-old Greek-Frenchcinematographer who caused a furore in 1969 with z , his Oscar-winningpolitical thriller that inspired the Black Panthers, among others. Son Gavras,raised by his politically engaged parents under a strict Disney ban, stood outfor directing incendiary and violent music videos for artists such as MIA,Jay-Z and Kanye West. He scored a hit in France in 2018 with his smooth crimefilm The World is Yours.
Gavras and screenwriter Ly have known each other since they first picked up acamera. They are both members of the French artist collective Kourtrajmé. Lybroke through as a director in 2019 with Les miserables , his 2019 Oscar-nominated feature film about derailing (police) violence in a French suburb.The director and screenwriter grew up in such a concrete place many kilometersfrom the Paris city center, as the son of Malian migrants. He directed hisfirst and controversial documentary there 365 days à Clichy-Montfermeil ,about the weeks-long riots of 2015. Ly: ‘I experienced those riots from theinside, they took place downstairs near my flat. Of Athens we place theviewer in the heart of the consternation, we nail him to his seat. In this waywe want to convey something essential about those riots: that you don’t havetime to think or reflect when you’re in the middle of it.’
In Athens three brothers face each other when a video shows their brotherbeing killed by police brutality. Karim is the undisputed leader of the mob offighting youth, Abdel the decorated soldier who preaches ‘calmness’, Moktarthe drug mobster who only serves his own interests and trade. Meanwhile, theFrench mobile unit surrounds their neighbourhood. Gavras: ‘The film isconstructed like a modern Greek tragedy, in which characters cannot escapetheir fate. Their own will gives way. The pressure of that first act ofviolence is too strong, what unfolds after that is inevitable. That blueprintof conflict is timeless, I think. And to convey that timeless idea in thefilm, we gave parts of the besieged quarter the appearance of a castle wall ofsorts, with those battlements. And that’s how you see officers with shields insuch a turtle formation, like Roman soldiers.’
The French suburb, also called banlieue, has often been the arena forexcellent French cinema. From the classic La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz to theGolden Palm winner Dheepan by Jacques Audiard from 2015. Or Bande de filles byCéline Sciamma and the Oscar-nominated Les misérables (2019) by film-makerLadj Ly, the screenwriter of Athena.
The director, when asked by one of the journalists whether his film can alsoincite young people to violence: ‘It is always the same discussion: are it thevideo games that make children violent? I tend to think it’s the society, thecultural and social context. Films are a reflection on society, I don’t thinkthey give such an impulse. Are you going to smoke because Marlon Brando smokesin a movie? Okay, a movie can inspire you to wear a shirt like Tony Montana,but to Scarface looking doesn’t make you a drug dealer.’
And is he now also a political filmmaker, just like his father? ‘I do notknow. My father’s answer to these kinds of questions is always that everythingis political. A superhero movie is also political, because that movie sayssomething about the cultural influence that America is washing out on theworld. I don’t like preachy movies. When someone tells me what to think, Iusually go against it – that’s my nature. With a good film you feel somethinginside, only then does your brain start analyzing.’
Dali Benssalah and Sami Slimane in Athena.
below Athens the share of far-right groups in the conflict, which may haveplayed a role in the battle between the residents of the neighbourhood, isdormant. “I believe such forces have influence, but I don’t want to focus toomuch on them. The film is also about the tragedy that takes place between thebrothers. And there are always forces pushing humans toward conflict, eversince the Trojan War. Sometimes that is the government: like US SecretaryColin Powell in the Iraq war. But tomorrow it could be something or someoneelse again. Maybe Elon Musk from the moon, who knows?’
Gavras and Ly’s film is reminiscent of the Egyptian Oscar submission here andthere clash from 2016, for which filmmaker Mohamed Diab mobilized largenumbers of extras with flash mobs. The spectacular shots sometimes turned intoreal riots when the police arrived. ‘Our organization was very strict,’ saysGavras. “Almost like a military organization. We filmed chaos, but organizedchaos. And I know what can happen when you shoot conflict scenes like this,thanks to the music videos I’ve directed before. If the two groups you pitdon’t really know each other, things can get really tough. In front of_Athens_ the youths from the neighborhood and the stuntmen who play the copstrained together for months. When you know each other so well, such a scene ismore like a dance.’
So no one got hurt at Athens? “What’s your definition of injured?” Gavrasreplies. ‘Someone goes through his ankle: a bobo , as we call it in France.No one lost their eye, or arm.’