Forces spéciales
| Special Forces (Age appropriation 12) | |
|---|---|
 Official English theater poster of Forces spéciales | |
| Directed by | Stéphane Rybojad |
| Screenplay by | Michael Cooper Stéphane Rybojad |
| Produced by | Thierry Marro Benoit Ponsaillé |
| Starring | Diane Kruger[2] Djimon Hounsou Benoît Magimel Mehdi Nebbou Tchéky Karyo |
| Cinematography | David Jankowski[3] |
| Edited by | Erwan Pecher |
| Music by | Xavier Berthelot |
Production company | Easy Company |
| Distributed by | Studio Canal |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Languages | French English |
| Budget | 10,000,000 € (estimated) |
Forces spéciales (Special Forces in English) is a 2011 French war adventure film by Stéphane Rybojad which was shot in France, Djibouti and Tajikistan. The film shows a group of elite French soldiers on a desperate hostage rescue mission in the Afghanistan/Pakistan area. Forces spéciales is mainly in French, though also partly in English and Persian.
Plot
The renowned journalist Elsa Casanova (Diane Kruger) writes an article about warlord Zaief (Raz Degan) and names him "the butcher of Kabul". Later on her informer Maina (Morjana Alaoui) warns her that Zaief is out for vengeance. Maina is usually completely covered by her burqa but during the last interview she unveils her face for Elsa's camera and discloses that she is one of Zaief's women since she was sold to him when she was twelve years old. Before she returns to Zaief she bids farewell because she reckons to die by an honour killing. Elsa tries to hold her back but fails. Her friend Amen (Mehdi Nebbou) also urges Elsa to leave the country yet instead of saving herself she tries to save Maina. Zaief ambushes her and her friend Amen. He has their driver killed and puts her with Amen into a dark cell. Amen asks Elsa to show no fear in front of Zaief. Still she breaks down when their friend Salemani (Greg Fromentin) gets cruelly murdered in her presence.
Zaief accuses Elsa and other foreigners of coming uninvited to his country and of making his people crazy. He sends film material of Salemani's gruesome death to the West, where it eventually reaches the French government. A French special forces team gets entrusted with Elsa's rescue. They find Zaief's hideout in Pakistan. Although they realized that they are actually too few men to get the job done, they still go for it after they've noticed the execution of Maina. When they leave the place with Elsa and Amen, a bullet hits their wireless set. Without means to contact their base they cannot manage to be found and picked up.
In lack of any other solution they are heading for the Khyber Pass in order to reach their base in Afghanistan on foot. In the mountains they have another shooting with Zaief's gunmen. Since they stand on higher grounds, are clad in top-notch body armour and have high-end guns with laser designators and high capacity magazines the hand-picked commandos are able to withstand the attackers who approach densely packed and have only old AK-47s. While Kovax fights with his men Zaief hides and just kills his followers if they dare to question his orders.
When the fugitives come across a village Elsa asks for hospitality. She and her attendants are heartily welcomed. As they learn all children of this village have been taken away by a local warlord who was in demand of child soldiers. While they enjoy themselves with the locals, Marius (Alain Alivon) is suddenly killed by a sniper. The team's own marksman Elias (Raphaël Personnaz) take's care of the shootist. Later on Zaief's gunmen arrive and Zaief himself kills Amen. The soldiers try to save the villagers but this time their weaponry doesn't suffice. When Victor is hit, they retreat into the mountains.
Elias is the second of the team to be killed when he tries to outrun from Zaief's Soldiers. Victor,Kovax,Lucas and Elsa soon run into a snowstorm.Victor suffers with ague and little later he dies, experiencing the fate of many unknown heroic soldiers who had an unseen painful death after their last battle.
Lucas (Denis Menochet) is now so dismayed he doesn't see any sense in continuing. But Kovax knows that Lucas is about to become a father and telling him solves this issue. Yet Lucas is the next one who dies when Zaief and his men attack again. Kovax does kill Zaief but confronted by the death of his friend Lucas he has a breakdown.
Tic-Tac was also hit and has to be carried. They still have a long way ahead of themselves when they are surprised by a debris avalanche. Kovax can save Elsa and Tic-Tac but breaks a leg. The two men realize only Elsa can make it, provided she does it on her own. They persuade her to leave them behind. Kovax gives her a present he received at his last birthday, a compass that once saved French soldiers in Normandy.
Elsa, already obviously marked by severe exhaustion, scarcely reaches a road where she is found. Finally being rescued, Elsa refuses to return to Paris and has herself taken out of her wheelchair by Admiral Guezennec (Tchéky Karyo) who carries her on his back to a helicopter. Together they find Kovax and Tic-Tac who have lived to see Elsa again.
Main characters
Elsa
Elsa is defined by three attitudes. Firstly she is inevitably agitated when believes other women are somewhere downtrodden or mistreated. Secondly she feels that an Oxford man like Ahmed did the wrong thing by leaving England and she hates him for how he tries to fit in since he has returned to his home country. Thirdly she cannot help but express that foreign soldiers have no business in Pakistan or Afghanistan after all and even sticks to her credo when these soldiers rescue her.
Kovax
Kovax, being a soldier through and through, is dedicated to the profession and the country he has chosen. He serves faithfully and cares for his subordinates. When he talks to Elsa about her belief that people like him shouldn't interfere in this part of the world, he doesn't counterattack but just concedes that she has a point or two. He is in many ways the absolute opposite of Ahmed who inherited leadership, turned against the European country that hosted him for so long, demands unrestricted obedience from his fighters and doesn't mind if they die as cannon fodder.
Tic-Tac
Tic-Tac is simply a regular guy. He doesn't really care to explain how he happened to become a soldier. When he learns he shall rescue a woman he only wants to know whether she is pretty. He also loves to rampage with kids. Moreover he frankly admits that neither he nor his comrades (unlike Ahmed, who was even outstanding in Oxford) never were aspirants for a Nobel prize. During the whole mission he wears a keffiyeh around his neck.
Elias
Elias is the one member of the rescue team who has never killed anybody. When he must take out men in order to back up his comrades he does his duty. But having seen people die by his bullets he hesitates more and more often to shoot. As guest in a village he learns that the locals are friendly by nature and that he just might have killed boys who were only coerced into serving Ahmed and who were robbed from these nice people. When his comrade is shot dead by another sniper the shock shows him how the locals must have felt when he did exactly that to them. Once he has neutralised the other sniper he has an emotional outburst and is overwhelmed by sadness. Eventually tries to sacrifice himself in order to seek redemption.
Ahmed
Ahmed is angry about Elsa because she wrote an article about his alleged deeds without having spoken to him. He is obviously used to encounter prejudice. So it is self-explanatory why he returned to his home country and succeeded his father as local leader rather than further pursuing an academic career in Europe. Even so, he still falls for women like Elsa. His country fellowman have figured out that this could turn him against them. Although he is explained that he cannot be trusted unless he overcomes this preference, he cannot hurt her. Elsa demonstrates how justified their doubts are when she saves her life by reminding him of his time in England and by demanding that he looks at her when she is threatened. So he sacrifices one of his countrymen to make his point. When she escapes he is relieved and later he stands back when he should lead an attack against her saviours. More than that, he shows defiance when he comments on her survival by saying he had known that women like her her shouldn't be underestimated. In the end he saves her life and reveils his belief that your fate is not to be chosen by yourself. When he rescues her in spite of her ostentatious averseness his unrequited love and despair become visible. Even so, the director shows his sympathy for this character only by having chosen an actor who is a former male model and who resembles Kabir Bedi in his role as a fighter against colonialism in the once successful European miniseries named Sandokan.
French soldiers units
- Kovax : The Naval commandos (France) (French: Commandos marine)
- Lucas : The Naval Commandos (French: Commandos marine)
- Victor : The Naval Commandos (French: Commandos marine)
- Marius : The Naval Commandos (French: Commandos marine)
- Tic-Tac : 1er RPIMa, The 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (French: 1er Régiment de Parachutistes d'Infanterie de Marine)
- Elias : CPA 10, The Air Parachute Commando n°10 (French: Commando parachutiste de l'Air n°10)
Cast
- Diane Kruger as Elsa Casanova
- Djimon Hounsou as Commander Kovax
- Denis Menochet as Captain Lucas
- Benoît Magimel as Tic-Tac
- Raphaël Personnaz as Elias
- Alain Figlarz as Victor
- Alain Alivon as Marius
- Raz Degan as Zaief
- Mehdi Nebbou as Amen
- Morjana Alaoui as Maina
- Tchéky Karyo as Counter-Admiral Guezennec
Soundtracks
The opening song in the movie when the troops are seen flying in choppers is E=MC2 (song) by Big Audio Dynamite.
The song played at Kovax's birthday party is “Pick your God or Devil” by Robin Foster and Ndidi O. [4]
Production
While filming the action scenes, the actors were overseen and advised by French naval special forces according to the press folder available on the official site. Moreover one of their former chief instructors (Alain Alivon) played his own role.
Reception
Virgin Media wrote "With a strong cast featuring Diane Kruger and Djimon Hounsou, a powerful story and some sharp cinematography, this tense French action drama about the kidnapping of a journalist in Afghanistan is a nice change to your usual French cinema."[5]
David Beckett (Film 365) appreciated the film as a "remarkably entertaining, engrossing and moving action thriller"[6]
Cinevue's Amy Wadsworth attested "Forces spéciales" to develop towards its end into "an engaging survival story of devotion and solidarity".[7]
See also
- The Wild Geese
- La Légion saute sur Kolwezi
- Ashanti (1979 film)
- Let's Get Harry
- Tears of the Sun
- Act of Valor
References
- ^ DuHamel, Brandon (2012-02-17). "StudioCanal (UK) release of Special Forces (Forces Speciales)". BlueRayDefinition.com. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
- ^ Keslassy, Elsa; Hopewell, John (2010-05-13). "Diane Kruger ("Inglourious Basterds") will topline "Special Forces," a $12.6-million Afghanistan-set kidnap drama". Variety. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
- ^ Beckett, David. "David Jankowski's cinematography never ceases to impress as, with the different locales, he must have been challenged like never before to ensure every scene is properly lit, in focus and there is no blurring during the high tempo action sequences". Film 365. Darlington. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ^ ""Pick your God or Devil" in french film "Forces Spéciales"".
- ^ Special Forces (2011) - Our review
- ^ Beckett, David. "Special Forces is a remarkably entertaining, engrossing and moving action thriller". Film 365. Darlington. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ^ Wadsworth, Amy. "Despite its political context and action genre overtones, Special Forces develops into an engaging survival story of devotion and solidarity". CineVue. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
