Fridae

Without a doubt, the best film to open this week is 13 Tzameti. A low-budget black-and-white thriller in French and Georgian, it is so stylish and original that Hollywood has already bought over the rights to remake the film. But you might as well watch the first version since there is no telling what Hollywood would do it.

Written and directed by Georgia-born Gela Babluani who now lives in France, it tells the nerve-wrecking tale of a young construction worker (played by the director's handsome brother, Georges) whose employer dies unexpectedly. Frustrated over the fact that he wouldn't get his pay, he steals his employer's ticket to Paris and hotel bookings.

When he arrives at the hotel, he receives a mysterious call that instructs him to take a train ride to a particular place. The young man does so unquestioningly, and before he knows it, he has plunged into a hellish game of murder and chance...

Playing the lead character, novice actor Georges Babluani is young, shy and unassumingly sexy. He's just the kinda guy we gay men had crushes on in school. His director and brother, Gela Babluani, does a good job of picking the rest of the cast too, mostly men with weather-beaten faces and gravelly voices. He does an even better job of pacing the thriller and keeping the tension consistently high.

Good old-fashioned thrillers that don't rely on too much special effects are truly, truly rare these days. The audiences who came to the press screening seemed initially bored by the film's black-and-white low-budget look. But by the time the credits rolled, nearly everyone was grinning with devilish delight. So don't miss this.