Zinzana aka Rattle the Cage (2015) DIFF Review!!

Synopsis – Trapped in a prison cell (“Zinzana”) in a remote police station, a man named Talal (Saleh Bakri) is tortured by visions of his beloved ex-wife and son as he waits to hear his fate. When officer Daban (Ali Suliman) from a neighboring town stops by, Talal watches as the friendly visit suddenly turns into a bloodbath. Being behind bars is now the least of Talal’s problems, as he is forced to play a madman’s game to save his family’s lives.

My Take – As a resident of the United Arab Emirates, for emotional reasons, I tend to vouch for films coming out of this region no matter how cinematically fruitful they have been, and right from the first look of director Majid Al-Ansari‘s directorial debut it seemed like things are about to change, in the other words give a new hope to aspiring film makers of the region to push boundaries for film making. Produced by Image Nation Abu Dhabi and featuring the head of the Abu Dhabi film festival Ali Al Jabri in a cameo, this directorial debut of young Majid Al Ansari is one of the opening films at the 12th Dubai International Film Festival. When done right, films set in one location can be just as gripping as those with multiple settings. Think of 2002’s Phone Booth, 2004’s Saw (well most of the part) 2010’s Buried, 2013’s Locke, whats common between them? They are well made tense, action-packed psychological thrillers, who made effective use of their limited surroundings. Similarly, this film never leaves the prison it’s set in except for a CGI brief aerial shot to establish its isolated setting. So what makes this genre film (a first of its kind in the region) as effective as the latter film? Lets analyze. The premise to every decision made by the characters, is to pit two very distinct action movie archetypes against one another. And thanks to two very different but every effective performances, it works against all odds. First-time director Majid Al Ansari handles the environment like a pro. It never feels repetitive, and there isn’t even any actual attention drawn to the fact that it’s all set in one location. There’s constant attention paid to where the characters are, both physically and emotionally, with each informing the other, and Ansari manages to keep the ball rolling for 90 minutes straight.

The story follows Talal (Saleh Bakri) who wakes up in a jail cell in a small town as the only other prisoner is released on bail. It seems the two men were arrested for fighting, but Talal doesn’t have his wallet, so he’s facing a 48-hour wait for a judge to arrive. The local sheriff is kind enough to allow Talal to make a phone call, which is when it’s revealed that he came to the small town with the purpose of reconnecting with his ex-wife Wafa (Ahd). She has good reason to hang up on him; he’s an alcoholic who consistently refused treatment for his addiction and did not treat his wife, or his son, well. He may be sober now, but he’s reaping the consequences for his past sins. All that becomes background noise when Dbaan (Ali Suliman) arrives at the station. He’s an enigmatic and charming gentleman in uniform who quickly dispatches the hapless sheriff and establishes himself as the new, if temporary, ruler of the police station. He flirts with Aida (Yasa), an unsuspecting co-worker of the sheriff, and threatens Talal with terrible, horrible, awful things if he doesn’t cooperate fully. Dbaan claims that all he wants is for Talal to be quiet in his jail cell. For his part, Talal is smart enough to realize that his life is in danger as long as Dbaan remains in the station. Thus, a classic cat-and-mouse scenario is firmly established by the varied screenwriters, which then allows director Majid Al Ansari to orchestra a composition filled with thrills and chills, some lighter, but mostly darker. The superbly edited film gives off a strong Tarantino vibe, promising visual intensity, hyper-stylized violence and heaps of black humor. It’s an old story—two men enter, one man leaves—but director Ansari manages to shed new light on the timeless tale of man vs. man through confident direction, effective genre mashing, and one of the most terrifically wicked cinematic villains in recent memory. It is the first and second acts of Ansari’s film that really impress, writers Ruckus and Lane Skye’s script brilliantly nail-biting. The suspense is also offset by a surprising comedic element, mostly through the fabulously madcap performance of Ali Suliman as the mysterious ‘guard’ who is intent on manipulating Talal in order to get what he wants – whatever that may be. The story plays out exactly as you expect it to, but that’s part and parcel of its structure. Everything that happens is set up and foreshadowed to no end, but it’s all really just a matter of when. The fact that it uses the familiar as a starting point is why it’s so damn effective. The film pushes against the inherent structures of a film set in a single room, not only with the imaginative camera work and fluid editing; the tone shifts as well, allowing for broad, unexpected strokes of comedy, as well as boiling, melodramatic domestic tensions, and the constant threat of extreme violence, ready to be visited without a moment’s notice. Certain things simply have to happen for the film to progress from point A to point B, but how Dabaan uses Talal to get them there is what makes this film such a blast. The standout character of the antagonist, Dabaan is a perfect blend of charismatic charm and deadly manipulation, and he twists and maneuvers the morality and actions of everyone around him to his liking. He’s also absolutely psychotic, and one of the most fun movie villains I’ve seen all year. He’s the chameleon, the cartoonish mustache twirler and the eccentric charmer, all rolled into one. There’s no end to how complicated his plans turn out to be, and at times it even feels like he’s making it up as he goes along. He’s always ten steps ahead, but what his eventual plan is doesn’t seem to matter.

It’s predictable, and has nothing to do with Talal himself (like McClane, he was just in the right place at the wrong time), so he plays Talal like a pawn. He’s a sadist who fancies himself a shrink, poking and prodding at every aspect of Talal’s life in order to wrap him around his finger. Ali Sulaiman might be familiar to Western audiences who’ve seen Lone Survivor (he plays the one ‘good’ Afghan), but I don’t think anyone’s seen him do what he does here. He’s crazy for crazy’s sake, but he lights up the screen and has a ball of a time doing it. Secondary characters come and go, as Dabaan puts on a friendly face, and forces Talal to tip toe around the truth in order to protect his family, but there are also moments when Talal simply doesn’t matter. Dabaan is as stereo typical villain as they come. He knows it, the film knows it, and we all know it while watching him. While Talal is relegated to his little corner, working through his mistakes as he wrestles with a situation he may or may not deserve, Dabaan leaps and dances and schemes all over the set, as if Sulaiman were told to shed all sense of self-awareness and just have fun with it. While Ali Suliman walks away with all glorious scenes, Saleh Bakri plays the opposite, a bit more calm & composed, in other words, the knot which ties the film together. Yasa‘s Aida has some hilarious moments, while Saudi Arabian actress Ahd is hardly there. Aside from pulling great performances out of his actors, Majid Al Ansari‘s directorial debut is a success because of his contagious enthusiasm for film that shines through each scene. The sense of claustrophobia is palpable, even in the bird’s-eye view shots. Because they’re locked up far away from society in the middle of nowhere, it begs the question: even if Talal escapes, where will he go? How long will he survive alone in the hot desert? And even if he does manage to find someone, who will be willing to help him?. On the whole, ‘Zinzana‘ or ‘Rattle the Cage‘ is one of the most effective & taunting psychological thrillers I have seen in a while, thanks to its slick direction & superb performances. If ever there was a reason needed to explain why there should be more films coming out of the United Arab Emirates, director Majid Al Ansari‘s film, would provide a sound argument. The first genre film to ever be released from the region, and only the fifth film, period, to ever come from the area, Zinzana proves to be as impressive as it is important to the future of cinema in the Middle East. Hopefully, more genre films from the blossoming foreign industry will follow Zinzana’s lead, and if audiences are lucky, some of those movies might even be helmed by director Ansari himself. Must Watch!!