Line #8 Film/Athena2022


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/athena_poster_6.jpg]]
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3	''Athena'' is a French action drama film directed by Romain Gavras, from a screenplay by Gavras, Ladj Ly and Elias Belkeddar. It was released on Creator/{{Netflix}} on 23 September 2022.
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5	After an Algerian-French teen, Idir, dies as an apparent result of PoliceBrutality, a massive riot ignites in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banlieue banlieue]] Athena. Idir's older brothers Abdel (Creator/DaliBenssalah), Karim (Sami Slimane), and Moktar (Ouassini Embarek) find themselves on opposing sides of the conflict, with Karim leading the riots to demand the heads of the murderous cops, Abdel urging for a peaceful path to justice, and Moktar seeking an escape from the conflict with his drug stash.
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7	!!''Athena'' provides examples of:
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9	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:The ending reveals right-wing extremists recorded themselves killing Idir while wearing police uniforms to instigate a race riot in France. [[TheBadGuyWins They were successful]]]].
10	* TheBadGuysAreCops: Zig-zagged. Idir's death is apparently the result of police brutality, and the cops are the ones attempting to brutally quell the riots, but the police are also human beings, and police officials keep insisting that Idir's killers weren't cops. [[spoiler:It's ultimately revealed that the killers weren't cops after all]].
11	* TheBadGuyWins: The end reveals that [[spoiler:Idir was killed in a far-right false flag operation after all, which has achieved its ends of igniting chaos throughout the nation]].
12	* BewareTheQuietOnes: Abdel is strangely focused on getting Sebastien to safety. Sebastien turns out to be a quiet, passive, and almost helpless man with some ambiguous mental disorder. In the third act, Abdel enlists him to open a police locker, and Sebastien immediately begins rattling off the tools and explosives he'll need. Ultimately he [[spoiler:"goes crazy" and rigs several floors of the apartment building to explode for no apparent reason]].
13	* BigBadFriend: The first two acts of the film hinge on the conflict between Abdel the peacemaker and his beloved brother Karim, the rabble-rouser.
14	* BlindObedience: Nearly all of Karim's followers follow his every order, from attacking the police station to kenneling and pouring gasoline onto CRS riot police in order for Karim to light them ablaze.
15	* CainAndAbel: Karim feuds with both Abdel and his half-brother Moktar for working against his riot.
16	* CassandraTruth: [[spoiler:The police keep insisting that the killers were a bunch of right-wing extremists. In the epilogue, we find that this is true]].
17	* CategoryTraitor: Karim accuses Abdel of betraying his people by serving in the French military.
18	* DiscOneFinalBoss: It turns out that [[spoiler:Karim, the antagonist for the first two acts of the film, dies at the end of the second act. Abdel suffers a FaceHeelTurn in response to his death]].
19	* DressingAsTheEnemy: Jerome strips off his riot armor and puts on a black hoody in an attempt to fit in with the rioters. They don't fall for it, but it ''does'' prevent his fellow officers from recognizing him.
20	* EpicTrackingShot: Quite a few shots are [[TheOner extremely lengthy]] and range all over the place. The first 10 minutes of the film are shot entirely in one cut, starts as a press conference and then follows Karim as he leads a police station invasion, jumps into van with stolen police equipment, drives through the neighborhood, enters a fortified banlieue, and marches to the parapet to face off against the police.
21	* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
22	** Abdel is first shown angry but urging calm while wearing his military uniform, establishing him as angry but principled.
23	** Karim is first seen throwing a molotov cocktail at his own brother's press conference to start a riot, showing how he'll hurt anyone necessary to achieve his ends.
24	** Jerome is introduced picking at nail polish on his thumb, left there by one of his young daughters, establishing him as a decent family man.
25	* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Abdel is working to try to save lives through the first two acts of the film. Then his brother Karim is burned to death in front of him, and he flips, deciding to side with the rioters after all]].
26	* FakeKillScare: [[spoiler:Abdel threatens to shoot Jerome and then fires two shots. When we cut back to Jerome, however, he's still alive. Abdel has spared him]].
27	* FatalFireworks: Downplayed. Fireworks are heavily used by Athena's inhabitants and Karim's followers, but they don't kill anyone. Instead, they are used to keep the police at a distance and start fires.
28	* FriendOrFoe:
29	** Karim's stolen police van gets pelted as they drive it into Athena. He swears in frustration that his own defenders can't tell that it's him.
30	** Jerome gets shot by his fellow police while trying to get rescued.
31	* LooksLikeJesus: Midway through the riot, Karim lets his hair fall free down his shoulders and starts wearing an open-chested robe, giving him a messianic look.
32	* MeaningfulName: Athena is the goddess of warfare. The director was inspired to make the movie by Greek civil wars. A Greek chorus plays a few times late in the film. The police are often shown in phalanx formation like Greek hoplites.
33	* MolotovCocktail: The opening scene takes off after Karim throws one at the doors of a police station, wreaking havoc and using the smoke to steal a locker's worth of guns.
34	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown:
35	** Karim and his men give Jerome a superfluous stomping while taking him captive.
36	** Abdel delivers one to [[spoiler:Moktar, his half-brother, for suggesting that they run away after Karim has been killed. It's not entirely clear whether Moktar survived]].
37	* OminousLatinChanting: An ominous Greek chorus is sung when the police begins the raid on Athena after nightfall. Director Romain Gavras (son of French-Greek director Creator/CostaGavras) was inspired by the ancient Greek civil wars to write the story.
38	* TheOner: There are a number of extremely long takes throughout the film. Most notable is the EpicTrackingShot that takes up the film's first 10 minutes.
39	* SkewedPriorities: Moktar is a drug dealer and is only interested in protecting his stash while a revolution breaks out all around him.

Context Film / Athena2022