The
savage Charlie Hebdo shootings only
just happened on January 7th of this year, but one can already feel
complacency re-settling back in, predictably like the turning of the seasons.
After all, it was not without recent precedent. The kidnapping and torture of
Ilan Halimi was a hate crime that shocked France, but only too briefly. Taking
the subsequent book written by Halimi’s mother Ruth as his source material,
Alexandre Arcady chronicles the tragic events step-by-chilling-step in 24 Days (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
Ilan
Halimi was a likable young man, who was always close to his mother and sister,
but was also rebuilding his somewhat strained relationship with his divorced
father in the months leading up to his abduction. Although he simply worked at
a cell phone store, a Muslim gang operating in both Paris and Ivory Coast
deliberately targeted him because he was Jewish. In their hatred, they assumed
all Jews had money. Alas, the Halimis were rather lower middle class with
little ready cash on hand. Therefore, they had little choice but to alert the
police.
The
police’s secret involvement will be both a curse and a blessing. Initially, the
negotiator advising Ilan’s father Didier as the family’s chosen representative
is somewhat helpful reducing the unrealistic 450,000 Euro ransom. Tragically
though, the police’s refusal to acknowledge the anti-Semitic nature of the
crime leads to a fundamental misunderstanding of the “Gang of Barbarians,” as
the abductors called themselves.
Considering
how easy it is to google Ilan Halimi, it is not much of a spoiler to say the
case ends quite dreadfully. However, Arcady maintains a great deal of suspense,
as the horror and outrage steadily mount. Yet, this is not a propagandistic
passion play. Arcady and co-writers Antoine Lacomblez and Emilie Frèche prefer
to focus on resulting emotional toll the ordeal takes on the Halimi family. It
is not just limited to his nuclear family either. With the police tightly
controlling Didier Halimi’s contact with the kidnappers, the Gang of Barbarians
expand their game of psychological terrorism, sending unspeakably graphic
photos of Ilan to his cousin and rabbi.
Zabou
Breitman viscerally expresses the anguish and sorrow of Ruth Halimi, but it is the
quieter, more understated work of Pascal Elbé that will truly haunt viewers
over time. Likewise, Jacques Gamblin dials it way down as Commandant Delcour, a
sort of problematically politically correct version of Harry Baur’s
soul-deadened Maigret. Within the large and diverse supporting ensemble, Audrey
Giacomini stands out as Halimi’s terrified pseudo-girlfriend (understandably
so, since by grabbing Ilan, the kidnappers also had her flat keys).
24 Days will turn your
stomach into ice-water. It is a tense, often brutal white-knuckle ride from
start to finish. However, it is important to understand, Arcady and his
co-writers somewhat water-down the torments inflicted on Halimi, probably
because it would be impossible to release anything remotely accurate in
mainstream French theaters. Nevertheless, what we do see is profoundly
disturbing.
