In a landscape already saturated with stories of undercover cops and mafia godfathers about to hand over their power, how does Protégé manage to come through unscathed? First, it overlays several narrative lines to have them interfere with each other and places the characters face to face with hypothesis of choices that they commit to. At least, this is what some of them want to believe and the film then lets them check whether, in between a sort of social determinism and a series of arrangements with reality, there is nothing but gesticulations from which they can extricate themselves more or less badly. If Protégé sometimes seems to (intentionally) play with easy options, the aim is to reveal its darker side. JB
SCREENINGS
LE CINÉMATOGRAPHE
SUN 17 > 10:30 am, in the presence of Clarence Tsui, journalist, critic in Hong Kong and co-programmer of the Derek Yee retrospective.
KATORZA
FRI 22 > 8:45 pm