Movie Analysis Summative - District B13

Synopsis:

In France, there is a place where there are no longer any schools or police stations, a place where gangs run the streets, a place called District B13. An armoured truck carrying a missile was intercepted in B13 by a very powerful gang. It was the mission of a cop and a prisoner who was from B13 to find the missile and disarm it with a code. The gang tried selling the missile back to the French government but they refused their demands. The cop and prisoner found the missile but it was odd to the prisoner that the government refused to buy the missile back. He then believed that the code was the code to detonate the missile instead of disarming it and when the timer hit 0, the missile remained intact. The cop and prisoner recovered the missile and brought it back to the government and secretly filmed them as they confronted their actions. The government admitted that the missile was purposely set up in B13 to destroy it since the place was so poor and everything the government said was broadcasted to all of France.

Questions:

The layers of context within this film revolve around the nature of District B13 and the French government's secret operation. The setting is in a ghetto that has been abandoned by the police  and has no schools. The place is poor, chaotic and filthy which creates an atmosphere of fear for the audience. The deeper layers are the government plans for District B13. The intention to blow up such an enormous ghetto installs fear and a sense of betrayal into the audience. We are threatened by the fact that corruption is real and that the government neglected their responsibilities and betrayed the people.

The filmmaker conveys a layer of evil and darkness through rural settings and gang violence. As unkempt and coarse the nature of District B13 is, the hidden agenda of the French government strikes to be even more corrupt, with their plans to destroy District B13.

The idea of the government planning to destroy a district within their own borders is very alarming. This expression of darkness had the most impact on us as a government is meant to manage and protect its people, and not to harm them.

A character represents darkness often by deceiving the other characters that we believe are good. In the case of District B13, the Prime Minister of France was the character of darkness. Through his deceit he was able to make the cop and prisoner believe that they were going to save lives, when it truly was a suicide mission.

Connection:

T-W: The public is often unaware of many activities in our government. Like darkness, corruption is unseen which allows for corruption to grow.

T-T: In the book “The Forbidden City”, the Chinese government killed protestors to hide their conspiracy. They wanted to put the matter out of the view of the public to keep them in the darkness, so their treachery can remain unknown.

T-S: Being under the Canadian government, I'm unaware about our government activities. This leaves me vulnerable of being a victim of corruption.

Relation to another presentation:
I think that District B13 relates to Inception, not plot wise, but the deceit that is commonly present in both movies. The expression of darkness that had the most impact on me was the deception and selfishness in both movies. In District B13, the Prime Minister hid the intention of destroying the ghetto due to his lack of responsibility. His selfishness left thousands of lives at risk, all of whom were his responsibility to protect as the head of government. In Inception, deceit is also a main theme. The main character Cobb required a highly skilled team to assist him on stopping the head of a large corporation. What his team didn't know were the risks involved with going into someone's dreams. Dying in the dream will cause the victim to fall deeper and deeper into their subconscious, never to wake up again. Furthermore, Cobb's wife was showing up in the dreams trying to kill the team to keep Cobb dreaming forever. The risks of performing inception were great, but Cobb's selfishness of wanting to return to his children put his team's lives on the line. Both these characters betrayed the trust of the people around them because of their own greed.

EQ - What does power have to do with fairness and justice?

With power comes responsibility, but corruption neglects responsibility and abuses power. The responsibility that comes along with power is to create a fair and just society for the people in it. These terms are not met in District B13 as the Prime Minister's act of injustice is unfair to the thousands of people living in B13. Instead of solving the problem responsibly as a Prime Minister should do, he decides that setting off a missile can solve the problem.