For those that enjoy the horror genre, Hollywood has given little other than disappointing, predictable films. French cinema in recent years has far exceeded Hollywood in this genre and Martyrs is the most recent example of this. The film is likely to be difficult to watch even for horror fans because Martyrs isn't simply a cut and slash horror film. It's a mixture of horror and psychological thriller on a level never seen before.
The plot centres around two women, Lucie and Anna, who met as children in an orphanage. Lucie arrived there after being found by police in a dishevelled state showing clear signs of abuse. How and why Anna arrived there is not explained. The two form a tight bond in the orphanage which is shown for a few minutes at the beginning of the film. Anna takes on a motherly role and cares for the clearly mentally ...
CloudRuler 14.08.2009 (16.08.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Martyrs (DVD)
Advantages: Very well paced, with good acting, visually entertaining, ends with questions of morality/ethnics Disadvantages: too gruesome for some people?
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Annallon 17.08.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Martyrs (DVD)
When you visit Iran there's one thing you can't fail to spot - it is a country with a fixation on death and martyrdom; a country where no matter where you go, you are never very far from reminders of the Iran-Iraq war - or as the Iranians call it, 'the Imposed War'. The war ran for just short of eight years - from September 1980 to August 1988 and is recognised as the longest 'conventional' war of the 20th Century. Nearly twenty years after it ended, the memories are still very fresh in Iran.
I'll admit I was a little taken aback after an overnight flight to Tehran that the 'highlights' of day one were to be a tad fixated on death and destruction - a trip firstly to the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini before we popped round the corner to the Behesht-e-Zahra Cemetery to see the memorials to the martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war as well as those ...