The Tribe

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 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.

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)

I feel this movie was an unusual look at tolerance, greed and peolpe's willingness to stick by each other, and how outside influences can kill a tribe , much like the missionaries did to the native populations in certain areas of the world.

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.