The hardest thing to break is the human spirit.
2016-06-18
$2.5M
89 min
Djata is a care-free 12-year-old growing up in a brutal dictatorship shut off from the outside world. When the government imprisons his father, Peter, and Djata and his mother Hannah are labeled traitors, the boy will not rest until he sees his father again.
Despite having a solid cast, this is a really pretty lacklustre story about a young boy "Djata" (Lorenzo Allchurch) who together with his mother "Hannah" (Agyness Deyn) must fight against a dictatorship that has arrested his father "Peter" (Ross Partridge) and branded them both traitors. His grandfather "Col. Fitz" (Jonathan Pryce) is a high ranking officer in this rather Draconian regime so there is plenty of plot for us to get out teeth into - except, well, there isn't really. The characterisations are undercooked; the dialogue offers us little to augment that and aside from the effort from Pryce as the man genuinely tormented by loyalty to state and to family, the rest of it is all just a bit flat. The production is decent enough, the look of the film shows aplomb from both the director and the cinematographer - it's just the really staccato, unrewarding, story that renders this an unremarkable watch that doesn't really use the talents at it's disposal at all well.
