Money's Money

What would you do if you stumbled across a stranger in the process of dying by suicide? Intervene, you might say - but what if, when you found him, you were in the process of breaking into his house? The four young thieves in this film decide to do it anyway, and it's the worst decision they've made in their lives.

It's not entirely an act of conscience. One of the group saw him earlier with a suitcase full of cash, but they don't know where it is. It seems fortuitous that he's able to open his safe for them. What they don't know is that he is a high ranking politician with a lot of influence - both legal and illegal. And whilst money doesn't seem to mean much to him right now, in the face of a scandal that could destroy all he's worked for, he's about to get a phone call that will change his perspective.

There's a joke, told early in this film, about three mice. One of them drinks some French cognac and becomes amorous. One drinks some Polish vodka and becomes belligerent, before falling asleep in the mud. The third drinks some Serbian rakia and demands to know the whereabouts of the cat. Of course, listeners cheer for the third mouse, but he may not be somebody it's wise to emulate.

What follows is a taut little thriller in which most of the rules whereby the young thieves understood the world are broken, and a few cinematic conventions experience a similar fate. The meaning of the money is different to different characters. It could mean getting gangsters off one's back. It could mean paying off a blackmailer. It could simply mean not having to clean toilets for the rest of one's life. But what is it worth? Géla Babluani creates an all too believable landscape of people under pressure in which life is always harsh and gangsters behave like they generally do in real life, with none of the codes or moral reservations we're used to seeing in films.

Visually, we are immersed in a landscape of shadows. The film's palette darkens as its story does, and we are left wondering if things might look different when the dawn comes. At times Babluani obscures the action but we always see exactly what he wants us to see.

And interesting choice for Fantasia, Money's Money hinges its premise on an unlikely coincidence but finds horror in what is going on around us - seen or unseen - day to day.