French filmaker Frederic Jardin adds an adrenaline-pumped, low-key action thriller to Glasgow Film Festival's collection of the finest recent films from the continent.
Sleepless Night follows undercover cop Vincent (Tomer Sisley) over a period of 24 hours as he fights to save his hostage son (Samy Seghir) after becoming embroiled in a complex drug operation. Vincent fights, bargains and disguises his way through a nightclub as the audience is constantly left questioning who’s corrupt, who’s straight and who’s on which side.
Sleepless Night is like Taken without the budget and shares themes of racial tension and gangster drama with A Prophet. The film has a very low-fi feel and skips the ridiculous firefights and explosions which many similar Hollywood productions would indulge in. Instead you get really crude, bareknuckle fist fights. The intense fight scene in the kitchen between Vincent and his adversary Lacombe (Julien Boisselier) is definitely one of the highlights.
The gritty realism of the film makes it plausible and believable. The audience sees every single little bit of action from all of the main characters as the plot moves step-by-step, so there’s no chance to obscure plot holes by cutting backwards and forwards. The handheld, tightly-framed camerawork gives the action a feeling of immediacy as if you were there to witness it.
It’s not all smashing glasses over people’s heads and throwing around bags of cocaine though. There’s a lot of really witty lines, some almost slapstick gags and real emotion behind the father-son relationship side of the plot.
Sleepless Night is an adrenaline-fuelled, blood-stained game of cat and mouse which still maintains a sense of realism with a convincing emotional element. An exhausting couple of hours of truly entertaining action.
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