Winner for the Sundance World Cinema Special Jury Award for cinematography (Germain McMicking), Variety reports that Ariel Kleiman’s directorial debut will receive a theatrical release later this year. A major supplier of Pacific Rim region cinema, Well Go USA have picked up what I would call a premium title in Partisan, an Aussie important that played extremely well at it’s Sundance preem last January. It’ll first be launched in Australia in late May.
Gist: Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel) is like any other kid: playful, curious and naive. He is also a trained assassin. Raised in a hidden paradise on the outskirts of town, Alexander has grown up seeing the world through the eyes of his father, Gregori (Vincent Cassel). As Alexander begins to think for himself, creeping fears take shape and Gregori’s idyllic world unravels.
Worth Noting: As mentioned in our predictions piece, prior to lensing, the project was the winner of the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award in 2012, and in that same year, Kleiman took part in Sundance’s Directors and Screenwriters Labs.
Do We Care?: In his ★★★½ review, our Nicholas Bell underlines how Kleiman concocts “a film that’s oddly obscure and perfectly menacing, with an unwillingness to explain itself”. The trailer below is drenched in dread.
