Science fiction and fantasy filmsReviewA grim fascist state is the setting, but this is no Hunger Games franchise: instead there’s an atmosphere of brutality and suspicion in this story of a boy’s search for his father
Here is an interestingly feral movie about a grim dystopian future. It arrives out of left field, with good performances from a good cast, a production that might have made an interesting BBC three-parter, and a narrative that refuses the usual things that happen in a Hunger Games-type film. The young hero doesn’t get to meet some gonzo underground “resistance” and start a long war for three more films and books.
Djata (Lorenzo Allchurch) is a boy living in a fascist state called the Homeland; he is forced to partake in Hitler Youth-type sports with other kids; his mother (Agyness Deyn) is a dissident outcast, as is his imprisoned father, but they are treated better than others in the same situation, because Djata’s grandparents (Jonathan Pryce and Fiona Shaw) are ageing heroes of the revolution. It is a tense situation, riddled with suspicion and brutality, and with an unsettling emphasis on pessimism. The storyline is elusive and mysterious. An intriguing, sombre work.
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