Plot from Imdb: "The inmates and guards of a modern, clean and efficient maximum security wing are slowly and increasingly brutalised until they erupt in violence."
Note: "In Roman law, a person convicted of a crime where the punishment included loss of their legal rights as a person was civiliter mortuus, a person without civil rights, a civil dead." (Wikipedia)
John Hillcoat ("The Proposition", "The Road") first direction is a very impressive one. Having collaborated with Nick Cave (as they did for "The proposition"), they created a bleak vision of a high security unit, doom to collapse from the inner violence of the industrial repression system that governs the place.
Extremely claustrophobic, strangely realistic (as far as we can tell), I found it highly political. From a cold point of view, the movie recreates perfectly the tension between the groups inside the prison. Even the guards seems prisoners of a dehumanized system. Highly brutal, even in the symbolic sense, this ozzie version of "OZ" (the prison tv series), is gonna hurt you and put you in front of a paradoxical question: is Society creating more violence by trying to suppress it ?
Excellent first movie from Hillcoat, his sober but efficient style goes perfectly well with the macabre music by Nick Cave (who has a small role as a crazy inmate) and creates a real oppressive atmosphere that contaminates you.
A impressive Ozzie gem.
Trailer (with french subtitles, don't ask me why):
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