Captifs

The film starts in Yugoslavia, crosses borders into Kosovo and ends at the back of a UN jeep.

War is perpetual. That is obvious and that is also the message in a cage where there is no mercy, no compassion or respect for life when the rush of war takes over. It is an imperative that it be so, such is the obstinate nature of war and 'Captifs'.

Director Yaan Gozlan's first feature length moves you with atmosphere, sound and baffling and hypnotic camera work. sometimes it moves you inside out and you can also watch it happening (derealisation in films).

'Captifs' is like a kid casually telling a story and suddenly everything gets very serious, extremely uncomfortable and horrific. Some scenes make you want to look away, but you don't; such is the pull of this film.

The film has it's faults but I'd rather stick to the film as whole; I'd rather tell you the good and you figure the bad for yourself, or maybe not. That's why.

In the end it is, in my opinion, telling you how it feels to be at war. How it must feel to not be forgiven, to see madness in the oppressor's eye and then, eventually to start relating to the look.

It left something back. Something that cannot be shed or shaken off.

If you like this movie, you should also watch a movie where band of jewish soldiers capture german civilians during WW2, takes them in the working camp and at the end kills them in the gas chamber while jewish doctors do experiments on them.

I randomly watched this without any real idea of what the film was supposed to be. In fact I was hoping for the "twist" to be something more surreal or supernatural (like a portal to hell or something), but unfortunately that was not the case.

For one thing, the trope of Serbia being this dark and horrible place (and Eastern countries in general) is tired, shallow and inaccurate. There's some inconsistencies another user pointed out, one big obvious being the "bad guy" with a Serbian tattoo.

Acting is decent, filmwork itself is quite good as well, but the whole thing comes across as rushed, half-assed and predictable. While I wouldn't call this "French Hostel", it's on the same level as far as quality goes. Stereotypical characters, obvious "twists and turns", nothing terribly memorable.

In my opinion, it's particularly disrespectful to base a film on horrible real events and just sort-of switch the characters' ethnicities around. The main premise could still be based on real events but would've worked better had they maybe picked a completely different location or with less focus on the characters' nationalities.

Nothing special here, might as well watch an M Night Shalalalam if you're in the mood for something tepid and mediocre.

This is not a movie, it's a propaganda film, released in the same moment when the international war crimes tribunal is arresting the leaders of the Albanian terrorist group which is responsible for human organs trafficking. The victims are the Serbs.

I saw this for the first time recently. Was on my radar for a decade.

This film has nothing new to offer but it has sufficient tension n suspense. The metal cutter scene is too far fetched n it is abruptly edited. I enjoyed when the bad guys got thrashed. I enjoyed more when the bad dogs too got thrashed. Overall this one is a good thriller minus the gore (which is good). The film doesn't have any torture scene and any comparison with Hostel is uncalled for. I found the babe Zoé Félix very attractive, specially her jawline n cheeks are sharp n hot. Need to see her debut film Déjà mort. Hope to catch her nude in her debut film.