Rattle the Cage (also known as Zinzana) is a 2015 crime thriller from the United Arab Emirates, the first of its kind from the country's budding film scene.
The story centers on Talal, a man who wakes up in a jail cell after a drunken altercation, only to find himself in the clutches of a murderous cop, Dabaan, who needs him for a mysterious plan.
Provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Talal is a recovering alcoholic, which is particularly shameful for a man in a Muslim country.
- Anti-Hero: Talal is a drunk who stalked his ex-wife and beat up her fiance, yet he's our protagonist.
- Booze Flamethrower: How Dabaan is first thwarted.
- Bottle Episode: The film takes place inside the single room of a police building, with only a brief look outside.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The sheriff's faulty radio leads to the discovery of his body.
- The bottle of arrack leads to Dabaan being set on fire.
- Foreshadowing:
- The sheriff notes that Dabaan looks nothing like he expected him to. It turns out, the man isn't who he says he is.
- Dabaan balks at the thought of covering his handsome face. In the end, his face is horribly burned.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: All of Dabaan's efforts are to rescue his brother, though his brother isn't that excited to get rescued.
- Fingore: Dabaan smashes the fingers on one of Talal's hands early on as punishment.
- Improvised Weapon: Dabaan kills the sheriff with a letter opener. Talal kills Dabaan with flaming booze.
- Karmic Death: Dabaan was going to burn Talal's corpse along with the whole police building to cover up his brother's escape, but gets burned to death himself instead.
- Large Ham: Dabaan is prone to lapsing into almost cartoonish theatricality, such as his speech about using the "redial" function on the phone. He even performs a Happy Dance when his plot is in full swing.
- Molotov Cocktail: How Dabaan is finally defeated.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It's never revealed in which country the film takes place. It's an Arab country, but not necessarily the UAE.
