«Five Fingers for Marseilles»

Fribourg International Film Festival - Loris S. Musumeci

«We must arm ourselves; they must fear us.»

Marseilles, a village in South Africa, where «five children were fighting for freedom». White policemen sowed terror. One of the five, Tau, learned to kill out of a need for vengeance and a thirst for justice. He ended up in prison. Twenty years later, he was released and returned to the village. The situation there has hardly improved. The citizens live with the constant pain of seeing their little Marseilles suffocated by corruption.

The police are no longer Englishmen. But they remain just as ineffective as the colonial police of yesteryear. Against the people, they are tough and severe; but against the mafia, they tremble like leaves. The group of criminals in question is led by Sepoko, a cruel man with a glass eye. «I can be the Devil. And I can be the Messiah,» he says in a slow, dark, broken voice. His mystical allure makes him all the more terrifying. Tau, however, remains unimpressed. He's known horror behind bars; he's ready to liberate his village, at the cost of blood. Thick and abundant.

An African western

Who's the hero? Who are the villains? In a throwback to the great western classics, the script balances good and evil. The South African director, Michael Matthews, applies himself to filming, in the traditional way, wide, dry landscapes. Wild eyes, cowboy hats and guns drawn at lightning speed are also part of the picture. An all-African, contemporary touch is added to the show in the underlying social message, lamenting a post-colonial, dirty, desperate land.

The photography doesn't work miracles. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that the bitter, deserted landscapes contribute to the anguish instilled by the story. The slow steps of the characters, their encirclement of enemies and surprise appearances give certain scenes an air of macabre dance. Sepoko's acting is particularly impressive. When he shouts, the sky closes and the room shakes.

The slowness of the plot's construction is not only artistic, but also highly annoying. By dint of twists and turns and deviations from the main action, the viewer repeatedly believes in an ending that never seems to arrive. Once it does arrive, it's a pity that the core of the story didn't appear until 15 minutes earlier. The clumsiness is therefore blatant, although nothing can take away from Five Fingers for Marseilles the merit of paying tribute to the western genre and evoking the urban and social misery of South Africa's suburbs.

«You fight the bad guys.
- I'm a bad guy.»

Write to the author : loris.musumeci@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Five Fingers for Marseilles