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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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13 Tzameti (2006)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Lucky Prey

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy 13 Tzameti on DVD

Like his lead character Sebastien (Georges Babluani), filmmaker Géla Babluani is a Georgian living in France (the two are real-life brothers). While repairing the roof for an exhausted morphine junkie and his younger, pretty female companion, Sebastien discovers the existence of a mysterious envelope containing train tickets, a tile with the number "13" printed on it, and other goodies. Sebastien knows that the envelope promises a big paycheck, so he boards a train without knowing what kind of fate awaits him. Director Babluani films his black-and-white widescreen film in chilly, scruffy strokes. Equal amounts of hope and fear build quietly and naturally, and the earned payoff is an all-too-believable shocker. Opens today at the Roxie.

Note: The American title is actually redundant; "tzameti" is actually Georgian for "thirteen."

DVD Details: I received only a "check disc" from Palm Pictures, but extras are supposed to include interviews, deleted scenes, the "testimony of a survivor," trailers and weblinks.

Starring: Georges Babluani, Aurélien Recoing, Pascal Bongard, Fred Ulysse, Philippe Passon, Nicolas Pignon, Vania Vilers
Written by: Géla Babluani
Directed by: Géla Babluani
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: French, Georgian with English subtitles
Running Time: 90 minutes
Date: October 13, 2006