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SummaryAfter the death of his youngest brother following an alleged police altercation, Abdel (Dali Benssalah) is called back from the frontline to find his family torn apart. Caught between his younger brother Karim's (Sami Slimane) desire for revenge and the criminal dealings of his older brother Moktar (Ouassini Embarek), he struggles to calm the ris... Read More

Athena

Metascore
Generally Favorable
73
User score
Mixed or Average
5.3
My Score
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
73% Positive
16 Reviews
27% Mixed
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
Sep 23, 2022
100
The Irish Times
This electrifying new film from director Romain Gavras starts as it means to go on: with a riot and fireworks.
Sep 23, 2022
90
Paste Magazine
A war epic between the people and the state, it sprints through a grassroots resistance movement like a brushfire: Blinding, dangerous, all-consuming.
User score
Mixed or Average
50% Positive
22 Ratings
20% Mixed
9 Ratings
30% Negative
13 Ratings
  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
Jan 19, 2023
9
simonjanos
However calculated for effect, it is a very good mix of everything it wants to show. The unsolvable situation, the different brothers (former soldier, overzealous martyr, dealer)... Everything is here: the situation of former immigrants, the intractability of acceptance, the different culture and a potentially inactive (in the end very active) possibly terrorist. The opening cut is amazingly good. Actually a strong 7-8/10, but it goes up to 9/10. (10/10 clearly "La haine" : )
Nov 3, 2022
9
alanpotter17
O filme é um caldeirão de explosões sociais: xenofobia, pobreza, truculência policial, tudo isso em meio às novas redes sociais e canais de comunicação organizando aquele micromundo. Meio teatralizado e com várias cenas sem cortes, a violência, ainda que plastificada, causa certo reboliço e não está de forma gratuita. O ritmo é excelente, embora peque por alguns excessos, como os diálogos, por exemplo, que poderiam ser melhor explorados em certas pausas (veja como o filme cresce quando ocorrem poucos momentos de contemplação). Tudo isso na França, berço da civilização moderna que nos deu o legado da "igualdade, liberdade e fraternidade". Só não é uma obra-prima porque lhe falta mais densidade, já que as cenas de ação respondem por toda a mensagem que quer passar, em resumo, uma guerra civil nascente. O fato de seguir a família de 4 irmãos, cada um com um papel social diferente, fez com que o roteiro, com falhas, se elevasse, uma vez que temos aqui diferentes pontos de vista que se entrelaçam a todo o tempo, sem pausas para pensarmos qual o lado certo de toda a confusão. Um excelente filme para percebermos a influência dos extremismos no mundo onde a tecnologia cabe no bolso, onde ainda há a presença da exclusão urbana em meio à inclusão digital, ou seja, num mundo cada vez mais tecnológico cujas raízes da desigualdade não conseguiram ser liquidadas.
Sep 28, 2022
88
Observer
Athena is shocking, partly because its events seem only about five minutes in our future. One could place its powder keg neighborhood in any city in any divided nation, particularly here in the United States, where another “war that pits brother against brother” seems at least as probable.
Sep 2, 2022
80
The Hollywood Reporter
While the film’s emphatic style can become draining, and its attention to technique risks overshadowing the interpersonal drama, there’s an operatic grandeur here that won’t quit, giving the constantly escalating violence considerable power.
Sep 23, 2022
75
RogerEbert.com
While some of these struggles are specific to the French communities the film follows, they are also universal, with recent echoes deeply familiar here in the US. And despite a morally ambiguous parting note, Athena incisively engages with these battles despite a brassy style that at times overpowers them.
Sep 2, 2022
60
The Guardian
It’s spectacular and immersive, with a sensational opening. But it gets bogged down in its own one-note, one-tempo uproar and open-ended parkour camerawork – impressive though that is – and suffers from a number of sneaky false-flag get-out clauses that feel like a cop-out.
Sep 21, 2022
50
Los Angeles Times
As a sustained piece of action choreography, then, Athena is frequently staggering. As a drama about police violence, the woes of a long-ignored underclass and the complexities of modern French identity, the movie feels thin and overdetermined.
See All 22 Critic Reviews
Oct 9, 2022
9
alejandro970
The constant threat of racial intolerance and police brutality, put on the table in a drama narrated in an almost documentary style that makes one think that it is based on real events. It is to freeze the blood of the most indifferent.
Sep 25, 2022
6
JLuis_001
The narrative goes out the window, and yes, some of what it does at many points feels more exploitative than anything else, especially considering themes like police violence and racism, but I get that the idea is chaos and not lecturing, and if you do as I did, once you accept that that's its angle, you'll start to enjoy it better.
Nov 27, 2022
5
Mauro_Lanari
(Mauro Lanari) "Urban epic symphony immortalized in a giant video clip with a magniloquent epic breath," self-sabotaged by an aestheticization of violence and anger, by a pathos that overwhelms the logos tripping over the sensationalism of the melò action, pumped up and pompous: once finished mastering drones, steadicam and long take, it's all over. Spurious fruit of the virtuosic form of Cuaròn/Iñárritu and of the theme of the banlieues in flames of Kassovitz/Ladj Ly, it is not clear to me why prize after prize rains down on them while Gavras jr. would be "hysterical, unproblematic and ideologically disconcerting".
Sep 29, 2022
3
ABDU1
Not as expected poor selection of main characters good sounds and meaning, but I feel like scenes are not connected.
Dec 2, 2024
0
Rana_Honeini
I felt that Athena was an hour and a half of wasted time. The film is filled with screaming and violent scenes, but its plot is unconvincing, underdeveloped, and ultimately unfair. What’s more troubling is how it perpetuates harmful stereotypes, portraying Muslims as violent, ignorant, or involved in drugs. This is far from the ****, in the Middle East, and particularly in Lebanon, we have riots and revolutions. But these are not senseless acts of destruction—they are born out of desperation, a fight for basic human rights like food, education, and healthcare. The struggles we face under corrupt governments and systemic failures push us to demand the bare minimum for survival, not to wreak chaos for no reason, as depicted in the **** film fails to reflect the depth of our struggles or the humanity behind our actions. Instead, it sensationalizes and misrepresents, leaving a frustratingly shallow and biased narrative.
See All 12 User Reviews
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  • Iconoclast
  • Lyly Films
Sep 9, 2022
1 h 39 m
R
Venice Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
Allywood Film Critics Association Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Gotham Awards
• 1 Nomination
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