The Tribe

I really liked this. It was really nice to see so refreshingly different. I thought it was interesting to explore how such a 'tribe' such as that featured in the film might survive in todays world and how they would work to stand together and overcome intolerance and fear of others who refuse to understand or live and let live. Also good to see such great British actresses as Laura Fraser and Anna Friel on our screens.

Dropped from a theatrical release and shown late on BBC2, 'The Tribe' iso one of the 150 films made each year in Britain which fails at the distribution hurdle. Which is a shame, because as an experience there are few films as strange, tingly and beautiful.

A reluctant Northam finds himself in the position of having to evict a long standing cult from a fabulous piece of real estate. He is amazed to find a group of people who seem to be happy to live within on the edges of society, who are happy with their own company but happy to use the world around them from nature to people as they see fit. As he is drawn into their world he finds that he can only be the agent of its destruction.

It's a theme which in many ways was covered a little more successfully in 'Pleasantville' and in countless films about rain forests. Working better in this film is the theme of the outsider in society - the twist being how much like them we would like to be. Years before 'The Matrix' we have people in long black coats striding arrogantly through their landscape, through city parks and the inner city. The bystanders look on with a mixture of discust and envy.

Richardson offers an enigmatic performance, as do the other 'are you in it too?' members of the tribe. Like Northam we don't know who they are and its at only very infrequent moments that we see the cracks below their reserve. By offering such understated performances, we find ourselves trying to reflect into them. Our imaginations try to work out their former lives.

Whilst we know the ending is innevitable, like the lead character we are happy to be taken along for the ride . . .

I'm slightly more in favour of summing this film up as stylish art than I am of condemning it as pretentious crap. There is some good camera work, good editing, and occasionally an evocative mood. There are some good performances, but film does have its limitations - it's a TV movie, but a good one.

If the central theme of the film is the tension surrounding those who dare to be different and their rejection by society then it is hardly surprising that by siding with them the film attracts negative comments. Or it may be that it is just crap. Except the BBC don't make crap films. We may not like what they do, but the production quality, scripts, etc. are always excellent.

So I'll come out in favour. It may not be high art, but at least it's got style and something to say.

I will confess that the movie had me intrigued almost from the very beginning about who these people were who were basically squatting in a building in a crime infested part of London that had been purchased by a developer hoping to transform the area. The company sends Jamie (Jeremy Northam) in to basically get them to leave and they refuse. But he does discover that they're a very unusual community - dressed all in black, under the leadership of Emily (Joely Richardson) and living a weirdly erotic and even cult-like existence, with even the tough neighbourhood that surrounds them being afraid of them. Jamie is gradually drawn in with them, especially attracted to Emily, and starts to basically lead a double life. The group is mysterious. Who are they? Why is everyone so afraid of them? I have to confess that for a fleeting moment at the start of the movie as they were introduced I thought this might turn into some type of horror move. Dressed all in black, I thought perhaps this was going to be revealed to be a community of vampires or witches or something. But no. Nothing like that.

And, ultimately, that was the biggest weakness of the movie for me. The movie kept me watching from start to finish to learn about this group and who they were - but in the end there really wasn't much resolution. I never got a true sense of what this group was about. They had a weird kind of relationship with a cult of some sort that operated in the area; they had a relationship apparently with Japanese business interests - but who were they? What was the appeal? How did Emily recruit them - and why did she start in the first place? As this came to an end, the whole movie felt a bit like a big tease that didn't give any real resolution. The group in the end just seems to come off as a group of people who've dropped out of society - except they haven't, as evidence by their clear materialism and overtly hedonistic lifestyle. So, in other words, the movie left me as I began with it - asking "who are these people?"

It's a BBC production and, frankly, its production values feel dated. (Admittedly, this is 27 years old, but it felt even older.) I'm not sorry that I watched it. It was intriguing, but in the end it failed to really explain things adequately. (5/10)

The Tribe, without a doubt is a fantastic piece of screenplay. I think drama's of this quality are few and far between and all concerned in its creation, including actors / actresses should take pride in the work that has been produced and directed masterfully. Despite numerous emails to the BBC in London, they still declare that they have no plans to release this work either as video or DVD media. This is such a shame for now we are bound to have to wait for the repeat which may never come.