Sadly Over-hyped

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie is a bit weird, but it's a nice multicultural experience though. It's about a man and a woman which are French but have Algerian routs that go on a journey (on a walk trip!) to find out these routs in Alger. They cross the south of Spain and meet many people, from Arabs to Gypsy. This film is very interesting from the cultural point of view, but is a bit weird sometimes, because we don't know anything about these characters, who are they, where they came from. Just during the trip we start finding out something about them, but even so many questions still open after the movie ends. It's an artsy movie, that's for sure, with a great cultural and musical impact, but it gets a bit strange and boring at parts. The plot could have been better, but I'll score it 7/10 because of the great soundtrack (which has Flamenco, Arab and Electro/Techno music), the very weird tribal-ritual scene (near the end), and also the artsy cinematography.

In Tony Gatlif's distinctive film 'Exils', we meet a young French couple: he is ethnically French, she is Arab, but both had Algerian ancestors, and the movie follows them after they spontaneously decide to abandon Paris and investigate their roots. The couple are presented in the film as very sensual, and the music and images that surround (and define) them are shared also by the viewer. The film touches on some interesting ideas, notably the not always chosen trade-off between freedom and belonging, and ends with a remarkable extended sequence depicting an Arab ritual of personal abandonment that bears comparison to (and is in fact more disturbing than) anything from 'The Exorcist'. What it doesn't have is much of a conventional plot beyond the collage of sights and sounds; and the characters, though strongly-drawn, do not evolve dramatically over the course of the movie. It's still a striking piece of work; but fiction is being used here, rather than serving as an end in itself.

I watched this film on French TV recently, and I was pleasantly surprised. I'll admit the main reason I watched this was Romain Duris, who I was so impressed with in De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté. This is actually a really good movie, the music especially really fits well with the scenarios, which is what one would expect from a film by Tony Gatlif. The direction is good and the story is told at quite a pace, so you won't get bored.I watched this without subtitles but that didn't cause me a problem at all. Some parts are really funny (i.e. Zano trying to talk Spanish) and others really sad (Zano crying). I'd certainly recommend watching it especially if you fancy something different from the hum-drum American-ised film style. I really enjoyed seeing this, as it isn't entirely dependant on language, but instead has scenes where the emphasis is on movement, vocalisation and music.After I watched this I found I kept thinking about it - always the mark of a film that connects with you in some shape or form. However, I warn you, this film may give you the urge to go road-tripping to Algeria. 8/10

A road movie told by the book: The growing of the character through the road. Two characters without a past or future. The matter is the "here" and "now". And a soundtrack most people would want by the end of this picture.The initial sequence may be a homage to the "throwing the jar of beer" sequence of Trainspotting, but it settles the tone of latent violence in the whole movie. After some sex a couple just want to go to Algeria, just like that. The same if you are watching the football game and want to buy a pack of gum at the seven-eleven. After that, there's only one word to define how you feel when you see this: Unconfortable. Most of this feeling comes from the fact that this people random like a feather in the wind, going back and forward in their journey as well as in their relationship. After an unnecessary long final exorcism sequence (and if you saw "Twenty-nine palms" and 1975's "Laure") you are enough paranoic to expect the worst. By the end, you will leave a sigh of relief for sure. There are good sequences, good acting, Lubna Azabal is sensual, Romain Duris is good, anyway, you'll decide what you conserve and what you throw away. And, yes, the soundtrack is superb going from the modern electronic hybrids, passing through the flamenco, until the source of all in the Algerian (and therefore by extension African and eastern) types of music. The music composed by the director, Tony Gatlif, is so good that you may wonder if the whole movie was just a big excuse to sell you the soundtrack (and sorry, Mr. Gatlif). But this factor certainly raises the level of the film. And the theme of the road movie also gives a chance to shoot an attractive cinematography. It's up to you.