I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Complex thriller

This film is a dramatisation of the 1965 political kidnapping of Moroccan revolutionary, Mehdi ben Barka. The opening scene shows the central character Georges Figon (Charles Berling) lying dead in his apartment, with his own eerie voice-over talking to the police 'lads' who are investigating the crime. From there, the story winds back in a complex series of seemingly disconnected scenes, which finally come together to give some sense of why and how Figon got killed. I said 'some sense', because the story ends without any neat clarity about who did what. Is each character a gangster, a secret agent, or a mixture of the two? And whose side is each person on - or are they playing both sides at once? We never learn that for sure. I'm guessing that the real world of espionage is pretty much like this.

The acting is excellent throughout. Berling has a 'marathon' part, hardly ever being off screen throughout the film. Ben Barka himself is well played by a remarkable look-alike, Simon Abkarian. (There is newsreel footage early in the film, where we see the real ben Barka).

Oddly enough, maybe the acting is too good. What I mean is that all the characters in the story (with the possible exception of ben Barka) are convincingly portrayed as being self-centred, mercenary, decidedly unattractive people. Berling plays the amoral Figon so well that I never attached to his character - Figon was a guy that I just wouldn't have wanted to know, so in the end I wasn't much interested who had killed him or why.

I'd say, watch this one if you'd like to see a very well-produced, complex thriller, one that will get your brain working at full blast just to follow the plot.

Enjoyable

I enjoyed this film very much, well scripted and very well acted. This is definately one to rent or buy.