13 by Paul Bullock

Arriving on DVD after a successful festival and cinema run, Gela Babluani's 13 was described by some critics as ‘Fight Club in French’ but is actually far more interesting than that rather superficial comparison, blending a bit of David Fincher's bruising classic, with a dash of Hitchcockian subterfuge and a hint of another Fincher film, The Game. In that, Michael Douglas became embroiled in an underhand game set-up by an unknown force. Here, Sebastian (Georges Babluani, the director's brother on top form) brings it all on himself.

He plays Sebastian, a roofer who overhears suspicious activity at the house he’s working at. Unfortunately the old man he’s working for dies before he can be paid, but Sebastian uses the isolated bits of information, along with a letter intended for the man, to follow a mysterious trail he believes will eventually lead him to the money his destitute family so desperately needs.

What follows, as Sebastian is gradually dragged into a violent underworld, has the kind of psychoanalytical undertones that’d give Sigmund Freud palpitations. But more than that, 13 is a just damn good thriller. Elegant, tightly scripted and occasionally violent, it marks a stunning debut for Babluani, son of well known Georgian director Temur. He cranks up the tension, keeping the audience in the dark and combining Tariel Meliava's black and white cinematography with some haunting music to create an eerie, surreal atmosphere which is only punctured once we finally arrive at our destination.

Sebastian, it would seem, has gotten himself into a form of Russian Roulette, a game where thirteen men stand in a circle, each with a loaded gun pulled against the head of the man next to them. Once a light in the centre of the circle goes on, they shoot while rich businessmen bet on who will be the last man standing.

It’s not giving too much away to say that Sebastian makes it to the latter stages of the film. But despite the inevitability of his survival, Babluani makes Sebastian's plight engaging and tense to create a genuinely unique piece of filmmaking which is far more than just a Gallic Fight Club.