London Film Festival: Rebellion - review
Review by Tim Carson
Rebellion is based on an incident that occurred in 1988 in the French territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific. A group of French gendarmerie are kidnapped by Kanak separatists on one of the islands in the colony and an experienced anti-terrorist hostage negotiator and his team are flown into try and facilitate a rescue.
The film is written, directed and stars Mathieu Kassovitz whose last major films were Hollywood movies Babylon AD and Gothika, although he came to prominence with his uncompromising film La Haine.
While Rebellion is not quite the incendiary, hard-hitting drama of La Haine it’s certainly a step-up from Gothika and proves Kassovitz is better writing and directing something he’s passionate about.
And he’s clearly passionate about the tragedy of the incident in New Caledonia and if you don’t come away from Rebellion with that same sense of tragedy then you haven’t been paying attention.
Kassovitz plays Captain Philippe Legorjus who’s flown in to Ouvéa to negotiate peace with Kanak separatist leader Alphonse Dianou (Iabe Lapacas). At the same time there’s an election going on in France and a political battle being fought between left-wing president Francois Mitterand and right-wing prime minister Jacques Chirac.
It gradually becomes clear to Legorjus that he’s not going to be able to do his job the way he normally does and that to find a solution to the crisis he’s going to have to try and manage a political situation that is probably beyond his control. If he fails then a military operation is the only other outcome and the Kanaks and the hostages are all likely to die.
The film balances the political machinations and behind the scenes negotiations with several dynamic and unflinching action scenes and Kassovitz is at the heart of it all. He imbues his character with a humanity that lets us see how brutal decision-making of government officials fighting for their political lives regardless of the actual lives they might cost. And also how powerless one man is to do anything about it.
He also raises the question of how can a soldier dispute decisions made by his superiors – must he not obey them even though they contradict his own morals? It’s cleverly and compellingly done and the scenes away from the frontline carry as much drama and tension as the more action-packed ones in the jungle of New Caledonia.
It’s a powerful, gripping and ultimately tragic film brilliantly realised by Kassovitz as writer, director and actor.