Akaki Popkhadze, making his debut with his French-Georgian film, fit perfectly into the theme of the Mastercard OFF CAMERA Festival’s “Eye for an Eye” section. His debut work is a textbook example of showing the motif of revenge in cinematography and doing so on many levels. In the Nice he portrays, revenge reaches everyone, even a God-fearing boy who in any moment wants to go to the seminary and train to become an Orthodox clergyman.  

In the Name of Blood has an incredibly good opening. Pulled as if from Guy Ritchie’s films, both technically and resonating with exactly the kind of atmosphere found in the Briton’s productions. The use of appropriate dynamics combined with the playfulness of convention and musical interludes gives the impression as if we are about to see another version of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, or RocknRolla. Moving further into the realm of inspiration, it’s impossible not to notice in the murder motif of the film’s first act as purely drawn from the Cohen Brothers’ films. It is coincidence that fuels the avalanche of events that follow the characters in Popakhadze’s film, and it is this and subsequent coincidences that create and drive the action in In the Name of Blood. 

Tristan (Florent Hill) is an orderly, calm and young man full of faith. Living in Nice with his parents, he exudes positivity and kindness of heart, and even when he learns of his father’s violent death, he doesn’t want to immediately go into action. His older brother Gabriel (Nicholas Duvauchelle) arrives for the funeral after a long separation straight from his native Georgia. The brotherly relationship is amazingly handled by the filmmakers, both in terms of the script and the acting of both actors themselves. The chemistry the characters have on screen is at a very high level, and their subsequent adventures are watched with intrigue.  

Guillaume Ferran composed the film’s soundtrack and to say that he did a great job is like saying nothing. Collaborating on In the Name of Blood, the composer opted for classical music, and that with a heavy emphasis on string and piano parts. The music enhances the drama of the action, and at key moments in the plot dictates subsequent events through excellent editing, which Mathieu Toulemonde executed perfectly. The set design (Thibault Pinto) and costumes (Tiphaine Ressort) capture the spirit of Nice’s multicultural community in a significant way, highlighting the dirty and violent face of the city in the south of France.  

In the Name of Blood is a revenge cinema with a brilliantly driven narrative and above-average written characters. The technical aspects of the film enhance its final reception considerably which makes it one of the more interesting offerings in recent years in this film genre.  

Marcin Telega