SHEITAN (SATAN)

France, 2006, 86 minutes, Colour.
Vincent Cassel, Olivier Bartelemy, Roxane Mesquida.
Directed by Kim Chapiron.

Sheitan means Satan.

In recent years French film-makers have shown a greater interest in what seemed a particularly American genre, the kind of film exemplified by the several Texas Chainsaw Massacres and their many derivatives. Young people go on the road. Something holds them up in their journey. They are taken in by some locals who turn out to be murderous and things turn to torture and blood when they fight for survival. They have titles like Cabin Fever, Wrong Turn…

Two French examples are Haute Tension (the director of which went to the US to do the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, also in this genre) and Calvaire. The protagonists of these films tended to be in their 20s and 30s rather than the teenagers in many of the US films.

It is Christmas and the caption for the film says, ‘Forgive them for they know what they do’. With this introduction, we are asked to spend what seems an interminable time with a group at a nightclub, not particularly interesting or attractive characters. Eventually, not before time, they go out to a country house of one of the group where they come across the gardener/caretaker (Joseph) and his pregnant wife.

All is not necessarily well because Joseph, played with leer and verve by Vincent Cassel, has a mad grin and white but diabolical teeth. After being taunted and terrorised by some louts at the local swimming hole (Joseph joining in), they go back for a Christmas dinner where things become even more bizarre and violent, including an odd birth, an evil Christmas and the victimisation of the central character, even to his having to supply his eyes for the Christmas doll.

During the dinner, however, this is a dramatic pause as the characters discuss life and death and the meaning of life, the existence of God and evil or not. This does supply some reflective foundation for the film.

However, it is basically a young group terrorised by maniacal types in the country melodrama, a terror movie.

1.A French horror film? The parallels with the American horror films, especially of young people travelling, finding in-bred communities, being persecuted, death? How well did the parallels work? The distinctive French tone?

2.The colour photography, the dark, sinister? The nightclubs in Paris? The countryside? The country house? The evocative atmosphere of the interiors? The village, the fields? The musical score?

3.The title, the Farsi word for the Satan? Joseph as a Satan worshipper? His story at the table about doing a deal with the Satan? The child at the end – the child of Satan? The blasphemous overtones of the couple being Joseph and Mary giving birth to a child? The Christmas setting?

4.The Christian imagery, Eve, the Satan, Joseph and Mary? Christmas? The Islamic background of some of the characters? Their not living up to Islamic ideals? Their reaction to blasphemy? Their survival?

5.The opening, Paris, the nightclubs, the young people, the hedonistic way of life? The music? The fights at the club? Bart and his aggression? His friends?

6.The decision to go to Eve’s country house? Yasmine accompanying them? Bart and his injuries?

7.The journey, the sinister overtones of the journey? The house? Joseph as the caretaker? His reaction to Bart, friendship? Marie and her pregnancy? Her presence but her absence?

8.The character of Joseph, Vincent Cassel’s appearance, the teeth, the hair? The local yokel atmosphere?

9.The young men of the place, the hot springs, the swimming, the fight? Bart and his aggression? Losing his hair?

10.Christmas atmosphere, the dinner, Joseph and the preparation of the meal? His telling the story about the pact with the Devil? The background of Marie and putting Bart’s hair on the doll?

11.The sexual overtones of the film? The characters of Ladj, Yasmine from the bar, Eve, Thai? The sensuality?

12.Yasmine, the grasshoppers, the overtones of plague? Their wanting to leave? The ensuing violence? Joseph and his attack, his aggression towards Ladj, towards Thai?

13.The young people of the place, the joke with Bart, the deadly overtones?

14.Marie, the fact that she is also Joseph’s sister, the background of the Satan myth, the gross picturing of her giving birth?

15.The men, their escape, knocking Joseph down? Bart’s decision to return, wanting to save Yasmine? The attack by Joseph?

16.The dream, the nightclub, its atmosphere? His blindness?

17.Joseph, sinister, taking out Bart’s eyes? Giving them to the doll? The child of Satan?

18.The overall atmosphere of this kind of horror film? How intelligently done? How gross the imagery? The quality of the horror film and its conventions?