Ni le ciel ni la terre

I liked the premise for this movie of a captain's men going missing while under his leadership in the mountains of Afghanistan. I mistakenly thought it would be along the lines of Predator but it was more along the lines of Winnie the Pooh Gets Laid! I was hoping and praying that Arnie would arrive in a chopper and blow the cast away, but sadly this was wishful thinking. It is a highly pretentious movie that tries to be deep and meaningful but turns out to be shallow and deeply hollow. It leaves you with an empty feeling and that it has tried but miserably failed at being suspenseful and gripping. A dreadful movie that some idiots threw money at. Total rubbish! Don't believe me? Watch it and waste 105 minutes where you could have nipped out for a good DVD. I gave it 2 stars, one of which was for the scenery and acting.

This film was so engaging it is such a pity it ended they way it did. As the logline says: vanishing one by one without explanation. Well, that's just it; the disappearances are never explained. I expected some sort of lead to the disappeared or to the phenomena at least, but nothing. The film just leaves you hanging to make up your own mind as to what (possibly) happened to the men.

There are no jump scares here, but it is creepy and effective, mysterious and intriguing. The acting was also very natural, adding to the credibility. Jeremie Renier in particular was very good as the somewhat subdued Captain. It was also interesting to see how the Unknown affects the various characters. Despite the dissatisfying ending (for me, at least) it was still well worth the watch and I would probably watch it again.

To be fair the movie has TREMENDOUS atmosphere, and the acting is very believable both from the French Troops cast, and the Taliban.

The story, however, is incoherent in the extreme, to the point of nonsensical.

A bit like (Kubrick) The Shining , or Event Horizon, the print as delivered makes no sense. Possibly bad editing, or just a bad screenplay.

I saw it as a religious film. Not exactly Christian one, but a return, in wise way, to fundamental myths, legends, mix of faiths and signs, clash of cultures.

I admired the beautiful acting and the fine crafted tension.

I was content by the ambiguous end, only working , in this case, in decent manner.

I appreciated the great job of Jeremie Renier and the symbol of sheep .

Maybe not great but obvious, a special film about loneliness, irational dominating a fist of people in war, believes and redemption.