Back to:
Current year's news releases
All news releases
News and information home

Award-winning French horror film to screen

RELEASED: Oct. 27, 2011

EAU CLAIRE — The International Film Society will present "13 Tzameti" (France 2005) at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Nov. 10-13. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, director Gela Babluani's debut feature will screen at 6 and 8:30 p.m. in Davies Theatre.

"'13 Tzameti' is an existential horror film, a violent prank, a metaphor for modern Europe, and a first-time director's startling calling card," wrote the Boston Globe.

After he eavesdrops on his employer, an impoverished immigrant (Georges Babluani, the director's brother) intercepts a package that he thinks is the key to a get-rich-quick scheme. He assumes a false identity and manages to evade the police as he follows a series of cryptic instructions. The trail eventually leads him into the heart of the French countryside and face-to-face with a ring of clandestine gamblers who bet on human lives. From this point on there is no turning back.

"Shot like the grunge version of a '50s noir thriller from France (or Soviet Georgia), the black-and-white '13 Tzameti' turns into a shocker of Tarantino proportions in protracted sequences of explosive violence that leave viewers quaking," wrote Variety. "The director — son of well-known Georgian helmer Temur Babluani — has absorbed a lot from classic East European cinema, including a feeling for eerie faces and images, and a knack for building tension."

In French, Georgian and German with English subtitles, the 93-minute film is not rated.

Admission is free at the door with a Blugold Card or IFS membership. Community members who wish to attend campus films can purchase an annual IFS membership at the Service Center (715-836-3727) in Davies Center's east lobby. An individual membership costs $4, and a family membership is $10.

More information about the campus film series is available online and at the Activities, Involvement and Leadership office in Davies Center 133.

-30-

JS/DW

Back to:
Current year's news releases
All news releases
News and information home