“Atina”: A political camera is chasing what is going on (press file)
Because of police brutality, blood flowed, and a violent uprising broke out, smashing, occupying and smashing public property. Fire fire fire, in “Atina” (2022, “Netflix”) by Roman Gavras. The camera moves to show the unity of the place. The real hero is a portable camera that chases after what’s going on. There he plays with the cinematic medium, the narrator’s equivalent, who becomes the subject of his narration. The camera follows a stubborn peacock figure, without qualifications, who is trying to lead an uprising, but events transcend her.
A drop of spilled blood is an exciting spark. The causes are deep. The place suggests immigrant suburbs, the squalid neighborhoods of France’s cities. Building cages stretching to infinity. It has small, cramped apartments, far from basic infrastructure. Décor enhances the credibility of the events.
The Atena neighborhood has been taken over by a raging scum, who wants to organize a revolution with disastrous steps. You want to negotiate, and carry a lit Molotov cocktail. The help of an insane person was sought to strengthen the sit-in and gain time. For this person private accounts, scattered the plan.
The generic shows Maghreb names, in suburb French, which it is appropriate to analyze with the sociology of cages: very tall and overcrowded vertical buildings. There are no horizontal institutions in the ocean. One of the consequences of that overcrowding is discontent with oneself and the place. The young man finds garbage containers in front of him, and sets them on fire. Here it is emphasized by Che Guevara’s words: “The resentment of the poor reveals their future through their sharp reactions.”
This is violence perpetrated by young people who suffer from a lack of justice, and who feel wronged. They are looking for change, and they refuse that “there is nothing new under the sun”. They have nothing to lose. This is political violence, not gratuitous violence, as in movies karate.
To diagnose the crisis, the screenwriter (Gavras collaborating with Ledge Lee and Elias Belkader) crafted a difficult plot: a young immigrant child, angry at the French state, became serving in the French army. Suddenly, a relative of his was killed. To whom would his loyalty be: to the state, or to blood kinship? This is a war in the midst of the state, which finds its extension in the midst of a family.
“Atina” chronicles an event that happened and will happen: the clash of the police with the youth of the popular neighborhoods. Presents a topic that occupies the front pages of newspapers. There is an armed crowd, to demand the right to reveal the truth, and to identify the criminal policeman. A crowd triggered by uncontrolled violence. Angry youth, emptying their misery by destroying public property. A portable camera follows them, in a stadium riot-style uprising. This is the “Anarchy Paris Commune”. The camera (Matthias Pocar) is panting behind the events, which makes the shots similar in content and style. This similarity lacks depth, and causes boredom.
The bloodshed is appropriate for the uprising, as happened after the murder of Mohamed Bouazizi (January 4, 2011) in Tunisia, and is happening now after Mahsa Amini was murdered (September 16, 2022) in Iran. Uprisings fueled by accumulated anger. Anger chased by a political camera. Due to the influence of the film, the head of the region in which it was filmed went out to the press, denying that his neighborhood was the location of the events of the story. (Full text on website) “Atina” depicts young men squabbling with the state for its monopoly on violence. So, the prestige of the state is in the test. The nation-state does not allow others to occupy public space. Don’t negotiate, whatever the cost. So, more blood flows. Many countries’ police apparatus will not allow similar scenes to be filmed.
For the police, there is a special place for negotiation between the elected. On television, the elected representatives of the Republic talk about neighborhoods that do not apply the laws of the glorious French Republic. Neighborhoods ruled by bearded people and drug dealers. The audience is turned against the alien upstarts: “We’re right. They’re wrong.”
This is how political coverage of work was provided the police Against those who make up a short-lived revolution in the Atena neighborhood.
To photograph this labour, the camera is not restless, nor is it looking for perfect lighting. It’s a political camera, chasing what’s going on through twisting and dark paths. Events take place in a short time. The camera pans to capture the uncontrolled violence, and chases after it. Two honest brothers search for justice in two different ways. At the heart of this chaos is an opportunist who is obsessed with profit, regardless of who has died and who is struggling.
The events take place in a closed place, among the people of the neighborhood. Young people belong to a miserable sociocultural milieu, whose future is condemned to death. Here, religion, regional origin, ethnicity, and dialect play roles in shaping identities and relationships. The people of the neighborhood settle their accounts among themselves, and then prepare to confront the enemy state. Screening has begun. This is one of us, and this is one of you. being severely sorted into The heart of the popular neighborhood: Are you with us, or against us? In a later scene, Abdul wears a white robe over his military uniform. Identities overlap and confusion.
This is the dilemma of the loyalty of the third generation of the children of immigrants, born in France, who have virtually no connection with it. Abdul moves in an equivocal position between “us” and “them”. by blood, associated with the victims; And loyalty is linked to the state.
In a moment of crisis, the hero of the film has to make a choice.