The Unforgiving (2010) - 1.5/4

South Africa is puzzling insofar as it is a civilized, democratic, European-ized country and yet continues to partake of the barbarisms that afflict many other African nations. According to the IRIN, there are roughly 500,000 rapes committed in South Africa every year, 15% of which are under 10 years of age. A CIET survey found that 60% of school-age children, male and female, believed forcing sex on another is acceptable. The worst of all is that the authorities themselves appear to be complicit.* When I found The Unforgiving, a horror film made in South Africa, I had a hunch it would involve cycles of violence, possibly rape. And I was not disappointed.

The Unforgiving, a film by newcomer Alastair Orr, begins with a police interrogation of two victims of a serial killer. As they're being interrogated, you'd be correct in assuming they are survivors. The killer wears a gas mask and performs his work in some urban ruins in the South African roadside desert. These killings involve a degree of torture and teasing, cat-and-mouse games, before the final blow is dealt. Each survivor tells a story that isn't entirely consistent with one another's and is, in fact, seemingly full of holes. The detective probes further to find the cause of these discrepencies.

During the interrogations, we're treated to what appear to be flashbacks. However, the flashbacks aren't consonant with what is being stated in the interrogation. Nor do they seem to overlap with one another's statements. These apparent flashbacks are the film's strongest point, keeping the viewer mystified while in fact being ordered quite neatly. The closer one comes to the end of the film, the more one is able to piece together the chronology of what has been seen, some flashbacks and some, in fact, flashforwards.

The story finds its center in an incident of sexual sadomasochism and its cause that results in a cycle of brutal violence. Every character in this film gets their head smashed against the ground at least a dozen times. The statement is simple. Whatever poingnancy is gained by virtue of commenting on the South African situation is flattened and largely uninteresting by failing to have any interesting content. A comment in a work of art should say more than the wikipedia article. Consider this a rule of thumb.

Unfortunately, while the film is very well structured, and for this Mr. Orr, as writer, can pat himself on the back, it is not a particularly enjoyable film to watch. The characters are little more than abused-and-abusive husks of blood and expletives. To support a message about the violence in one's society, one owes it to that society as an artist to represent it in an emotionally potent manner, placed in characters that are real people. However decent a job the actors do--and they are quite good--these characters are not real people; and worse, they're annoying. That our glimpses of these characters are caught through unnecessary close-ups on their eyes, mouths, and possessions, wildly shakey camera-work, and very brief shots, as short as 1/5th of a second in action sequences, does not help humanize them at all.

In torture films, of course, one is free to just enjoy the brutality for its own sake. While there are some good efforts at brutality in The Unforgiving, it largely amounts to bloody snouts. No matter how many times a man's head is smashed into the ground, he gets away with blood over his nose, mouth, and chin. Other attempts at brutality we're prevented from seeing with sneaky edits.

From the title, indicating the inability to let go of abuse, onward, The Unforgiving tries hard to have significance and to be crafty. Its success is very moderate. The chief pleasure of the film is to be found in mentally putting together the chronology puzzle Orr creates in structuring. Otherwise, the same content has been portrayed elsewhere, as in Hostel (2005), Penance (2009), I Spit on Your Grave (1978/2010), Last House on the Left (1972/2009), and many other torture and rape/revenge films, much more effectively.

* - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_South_Africa