‘Red Path’: Thessaloniki Review

Dir: Lotfi Achour. Tunisia/France/Belgium/Poland/Saudi Arabia/Qatar. 2024. 101mins

As if life for 14-year-old goat herder Ashraf (Ali Helali) and his older teen cousin Nizar (Yassine Samouni) isn’t precarious sufficient of their rural Tunisian neighborhood, a visit up the Mghila Mountain brings the added threat of potential landmines and threats from the extremists who hideout there. But, for the youngsters, hazard looks as if a distant chance as they horse about in mountain swimming pools and inform tales on a sunny day. Till brutal actuality arrives and they’re abruptly set upon by jihadists, who behead the older boy and go away the top for Ashraf to hold house.

Doesn’t stint on the grim element

This, sadly, is just not an imagined occasion however is predicated on the killing of 17-year-old Mabrouk Soltani amid the 2015 Tunisian unrest – though Lotfi Achour’s movie might do with a little bit extra sociopolitical context for non-local viewers. Purple Path has loved a powerful competition run since its premiere in Locarno, together with an viewers award win in Vancouver, and it now screens in Thessaloniki’s Meet The Neighbours competitors. It will likely be distributed within the UK subsequent 12 months by Sovereign Movies.

Achour, co-writing with Natacha de Pontcharra, presents the harrowing aftermath of the homicide largely from Ashraf’s perspective. Purple Path doesn’t stint on the grim element and Achour, who alongside shorts and 2016 function Burning Hope has written greater than 20 performs, generally dangers labouring the purpose in ways in which would work higher on a stage than a display. The casting is powerful, notably amongst the kids, with Helali remarkably adept at letting Ashraf’s warring feelings ripple under the surfac, and Wided Dabebi additionally compelling as Nizar’s younger girlfriend.

Preserving us in Ashraf’s headspace, cinematographer Wojciech Staron usually lets the teen’s face fill the body, as we watch him making an attempt to wrap his head round what has occurred. At different instances we’re totally immersed within the boy’s reminiscences of the hours earlier than Nizar was killed, shot from a first-person viewpoint, or aware about fantasy sequences and goals through which Ashraf tries to work by his emotions by speaking to his useless good friend. Though there’s loads of variation to the taking pictures type all through, Staron’s work has a dreamy circulate between the fact of life within the village and the psychological landscapes that Ashraf navigates, which inserts his psychological limbo state. Aymen Laabidi’s efficient sound design additionally amplifies Ashraf’s observations, reminiscences and trauma. 

{The teenager}’s psychological journey turns into a bodily one as his household discover themselves ignored by the authorities. In the event that they need to get well Nizar’s physique they have to do it themselves, and Ashraf is the one one who is aware of the place he’s. There’s nuance to the strain the boy comes below, as Achour makes it clear that it stems from the household’s desperation slightly than a want to place the boy by the mill.

Past the homicide itself, Achour paints a vivid image of a neighborhood the place, in any occasion, childhood is brief, with Ashraf having to give up faculty as a result of his father is away. It’s additionally a spot the place strain to take a facet between the jihadists and authorities places everybody at further threat. And, as this uncooked drama highlights, it’s an atmosphere through which the specter of violence is fixed whereas the promise of hope is scarce.