The movie provides a safety of anonymity over its characters by never giving away the location of the setting, an isolated dream taking place beyond the pale of society with its own mechanism, but sometimes a lucid dream gives life to what is kept in the deep hollows of the collective consciousness.Alexander, a young boy of sensibility, lives among a community of children and women overseen by just one man, Gregori. The film documents the manipulation that takes place as the group exist to function for a cause of its own and juxtaposes the fanaticism, of a controlled and ultimately an abusive nature, with the open wonder of the innocence of childhood.The mechanisms of Oedipal crisis is at work and Alexander opens his eyes to the world around him, made significant with the arrival of a baby brother. However, the much debated theme, commonly based on the Freudian concept of repressed sexuality, makes its transition much quicker to the stages of puberty and adulthood as the boy begins to realize his actions must now carry the consequences of social responsibility, or the lack thereof. The film ends abruptly to prevent something really serious from happening. Instead, it leaves us on a poignant note of a scene, reminding us of Ezekiel 25:17, with boy Alexander emanating a plea for deliverance through his being as he stares down the only responsible man in his eyes.Dream-like, painstaking and most certainly a unique film experience that's put the young director on my radar.

Depressing, dark, dingy, dismal flick with no real positives. I tried to "like" it, to understand it, to appreciate it, but the task was fruitless -- however serious my efforts. To add to my plight, the film is extremely slow-moving, plods along at an inexcusably doddering, halting pace. Perhaps it makes some sense in its original language, to people in the area, but to this well-travelled mature westerner, it was pointless and frustrating. I gave it 2 stars because the actors seemed intent, and there was no intrusive music. I suppose the best destination for this type of cinematic venture would be an "art playhouse". It is decidedly outside the mainstream of things and beyond my comprehension.

Vincent Cassel stars in this Australian film as Gregori. He has a harem of women who all have children – mostly it would appear – with him as the father. They live in an isolated community where they seem to lead a happy life with the children learning yet enjoying their childhood. Gregori is the only man. His eldest son is Alexander and at first we see true paternal love and the reflected devotion.However, all is not as it seems as we learn that the outside world is not a nice place and Gregori is training his children to be 'hit men' or hit kids more appropriately. As Alexander learns more of the world forbidden to him he slowly starts to question what his father's motives are and their way of life.Now this is extremely well made being in part made by Animal Kingdom 'It Follows' fame. The actors all seem to be unknowns but all do brilliant jobs of what was a very physical film in terms of what is expected. Cassel is just as good in an English language role as he is in his native French and puts in a stellar performance. The plot was apparently inspired by child soldiers of Colombia. It is a very thoughtful film and despite the violent undertones is actually fairly responsible in avoiding the actual gore but still addressing the issues head on. It has had mixed reviews but I for one found that it stayed with me long after having seen it – which is always a good thing. This is for people who like to think about their films and who appreciate an original film delivered in a realistic way.

This movie makes no sense. We are never told why children are used as assassins. Gregori seems to treat the children well, but on the other hand, he has trained them as baby hit-men. There may indeed be evil people outside the compound — we see that all around us in the world we live in now, so why are the people killed chosen to be executed? What have they done to deserve to be executed?How can Alexander justify killing Gregori? If Alexander kills Gregori what sort of a monster will he be as he grows older?If you like watching meaningless movies posing as deep thinking, this could be for you. If not avoid this one. You'll be left with nothing more than a wasted 98 minutes.