Review by
Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Lofti Achour
Starring: Ali Helali, Yassine Samouni, Eya Bouteraa, Wided Dabebi, Latifa Gafsi, Noureddine Hamami
The Mghila Mountain range, 1370 metres above sea level, reach from the
rugged norths of Tunisia to the turquoise skies of Jannah: a location
mirrored by the aljibal itself with its ivory granite, herbaceous scrub
and crystal mountain streams. Red Path, Lotfi Achour's (with, I assume carefully researched, writing
duties shared with Doria Achour, Sylvain Cattenoy and
Natacha de Pontchara) harrowing drama, opens with shepherd cousins
Ashraf (Ali Helali), 14, and Nizar (Yassine Samouni, good
but don't get attached...), 16ish, steering their trip across the
precipitous terrain. The boys play around, dancing to silly songs, and
swimming in the brooks which serve as relief from the dry and relentless
sun, their little bodies hard and sinewy in a physical by-product of their
arable existence on the hills and their impoverished village lifestyle
below. The Mghila is a playground, escapism for the two boys. Halcyon as
it is though, I would advise against a holiday in the region. First off,
doing some contextual research this morning, Google blew up with tourist
warnings not to go near Mghila, which is one of the world's most dangerous
areas, and, within the diegesis, following this bucolic interlude the boys
are duly accosted by the Mujahideen, who in scenes of hallucinatory
fervour beat them both, behead Nizar, and dump the teen's head at Ashraf's
feet to take back home as a warning to the community.
It was around then that I had to pause the screener (specifically at the
moment it transpired that as part of their work for the jurisprudence of
Islam, the terrorists had slayed almost all of the animals too). The
violence was rendered as a quotidian aspect of the region (inevitably,
Red Path is based on a true story), so traumatic in its
authenticity and shocking in its juxtapositional swiftness, that I needed
a cat break. I returned to Ashraf, his cousin's head in a sports
bag, his jacket housing a bleating sole survivor kid (baby goats being the
cutest and most affectionate of all creatures), making his way back. As
the blood stain spreads across the bag's polyester, the territory is now
treacherous with mines and the mutilated bodies of livestock; his
responsibility for the orphan goat intensifying the ordeal in a cruel
inverse of the opening's carefree frolic.
Achour's veteran background in theatre is evident in the ensuing human
drama, yet Red Path's mise-en-scene is also deeply cinematic. The mini odyssey of the
14-year-old is immersively communicated through elliptical point of view
shots, dreamlike visuals of clouded dust and broken trees. This first act
- frightening, compulsive - transpires to be the film's zenith, with the
kinetic narrative impressively carried upon Helali's tiny shoulders. With
his clapped dental situation and cloudy persona, he is a remarkable
presence throughout the film, and as Red Path settles into
its inexorable study of familial grief (the village men re-embark upon the
Mghila to retrieve Nizar's torso: I mean fucking hell) he remains the
film's emotional locus. Upon the return journey, Nizar's adult cousin
steps upon a mine and as the rest of the crew work out how to balance the
weight and save his life, a procedure which is presented as practised, the
camera transitions from wide shots of the still cousin to close-ups of
Ashraf's face, witnessing more than any adolescent should ever be able to
bear.
There is no nurture or aftercare afforded following Ashraf's ordeal, just
a sense of gratitude that he escaped this time and a general impetus to
get on with it. Red Path's narrative is similarly dutiful, as it painstakingly depicts the
unthinkable fallout from the assault and the irreparable damage enacted.
Ashraf dreams of Nizar, the imagination's cruel trick of those everyday
dreams where someone gone is still alive, sees his ghost in the corner of
the frame and probably forever more. An atrocity which is endless in its
cyclical implications of holy warriors who live to kill, with children and
grieving families their victims. The end credits explicate the real-life
happening which Achour's film is based on.
Red Path is in UK cinemas from June
20th.
