Partisan

OTTAWA PREMIERE | STARTS THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 2

On the edge of a crumbling city, 11-year-old Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel) lives in a sequestered commune alongside other children, their mothers, and charismatic leader, Gregori (Vincent Cassel). Gregori teaches the children how to raise livestock, grow vegetables, work as a community – and how to kill. With the birth of a new baby brother weighing on his mind, Alexander begins to question Gregori’s overpowering influence on the children and their training to become assassins. Threatened by his increasing unwillingness to fall in line, Gregori’s behavior turns erratic and adversarial toward the child he once considered a son. With the two set dangerously at odds and the commune’s way of life disintegrating, the residents fear a violent resolution is at hand in this Sundance award-winning thriller. Directed with subtle elegance, Ariel Kleiman’s feature length debut, PARTISAN, follows his award winning short, YOUNG LOVE, which received an Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and DEEPER THAN YESTERDAY, which had its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival’s Critics Week, winning the Kodak Discovery Award for Best Short Film and the Petit Rail d’Or.