Territories and Changing Opinions One Torturous Scene at a Time: A Movie Review

Director: Olivier Abbou.

Writers: Olivier Abbou and Thibault Lang Willar.

Director Olivier Abbou has delivered a shocker with his first feature film Territories. Shot in Montreal, QC. this title is also know as Territoires and sometimes even as Checkpoint. Territories has been released in the United Kingdom as of September 12th on DVD and this reviewer hopes that the film finds a wider audience in North America - the territory that is the focus of the film. In Abbou's political and horrifying thriller five youths are dressed up in orange jumpsuits to represent those confined, tortured and likely killed in Guantanamo Bay. This is a dark look at an even darker part of humanity and the visuals are not often pretty.

Several friends drive back to Portland after enjoying a friend's Bar Mitzvah. They are stopped by what appears to be two American customs officers. With no Los Angeles DUI attorney or judge or jury to help they are detained by the custom officers. Then, the nightmare of all custom stops begins with rape, murder, humiliation and all sorts of other mistreatments. Whatever happened to that poor dog? Thankfully, some of the scenes of torture happen off screen as Territories can be a difficult watch most of the time.

Now, the youths have been removed from the road and they are now housed in the woods in a cage, or in a sound-proofed cargo container. Let the messages of the confinement of terrorists in Guantanamo Bay begin.

Abbou's message is pretty blatant as the protagonists are dressed in orange jumpsuits. They are hooded just like you would see from news images of Guantanamo Bay. As well, the torture techniques sometimes discussed at Guantanamo Bay are used here including: sleep deprivation, beatings, exposure to the elements etc. The strobes, here, are not used for a dance party, but to keep Michelle (Cristina Rosato) Khalid (Michael Mando) and others awake for hours on end. Feelings of frustration might be aroused in the viewer as there just is no way out of this madness or the torture (outside of a pause button). You are trapped right along with them.

All of these scenes of horror are setting up Abbou's central message: not all of captives at Guantanamo Bay are guilty. And without an appeal process, how can they be proven guilty or innocent? There are also direct links with Guantanamo Bay as one of the false customs officers (Roc LaFortune) talks of his time spent as a guard at the camp. This is where he learned his torture techniques and this is where the source of the story comes from. Just like those previously held at Guantanamo Bay few of the captives here have any rights nor hope of escape.

This reviewer is biased towards these politically motivated horror thrillers in the vein of They Live (1988) and messages of consumerism, or Martyrs (2008) and the topic of religious fundamentalism. So, this feature had an audience with this reviewer from the get go. Film is a great medium to challenge political issues like the one seen here, holding war prisoners without rights. This style of filmmaking is also great for provoking questions such as was Guantanamo Bay serving a purpose e.g. keeping people safe or was the purpose of this camp to show how America flaunts international laws? This latter issue is still relevant as recently America crossed in to Pakistani territory to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden. Is doing a little evil okay if the act is creating a greater good? You will find no spilled tears for Bin Laden over here; however, the execution of the raid outside of Pakistan's control is a flagrant violation of international boundaries. These are great questions for debate and Abbou brings up a lot of interesting issues in his debut feature.

Much of Territories is hard to watch. Although, Abbou does switch character perspectives often, the audience will be exposed to several gratuitous scenes of torture. There are some great uses of social messages held within the narrative here and this reviewer would highly recommend this film despite some of the more difficult scenes. Only one question remains: will North American audiences support such a controversial film?

Writing/story/plot: 8.5 (good use of metaphor to highlight an important message).
Characters/believability: 7.5 (no problems with the acting, LaFortune is excellent).

Overall: 8 out of 10 (a great film).

*shot for $3 million.

**disclaimer: advertising in articles does not bias reviews.

A second review of this film at Eye for Film (David Graham):

Territories Reviewed at Eye for Film

This film is only available in the United Kingdom through a PAL (Region 2) version, but the disc is worth the wait:

Territories on DVD at Amazon

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