Spotlight on Cucalorus: 13 Tzameti

The first narrative I've seen at Cucalorus, and also the most unsettling. In this French film, a poor roofer stumbles across a drug addict's plan to make some big money fast. Fortunately, the addict overdoses before he has the chance to collect, and the roofer is left with a striped envelope containing a train ticket and a hotel reservation. What follows is a sick and twisted multi-player game, where the winner is handsomely rewarded, but the losers...well, you can probably guess what happens to them:



Even though an American remake is already in the works (of course), I'm really glad I saw the original first. I'm sure any American studio would jump at the chance to jazz up 13 Tzameti's ridiculously simple, but riveting storyline. The only problem is the story needs no jazzing up. The film's low-budget, black-and-white production only adds to the look of the film's dark and dingy locations, especially the rooms in which the game takes place, where a single light bulb is the only indicator of whether you will live...or die.