'Sentinelle' Movie Review

Introduction

Sometimes you have to break all operations for one main operation. Klara's duty is to protect her country, her people and her family. One duty she loyal to at all costs.

Key themes

Klara is questioning a wanted criminal's wife in Iraq. Once she gains information, her and the team go looking for the wanted man.

Klara senses something isn't right as she translates the man and his son's behaviour as well as their communication with one another. The son blows himself up.

Klara gets transferred back home and she visits her mother and sister. She becomes a patrol officer, part of the anti-terror squad, in the town.

Klara asks for more drug prescriptions. During her patrol, a woman cries out about a current ongoing assault. Klara retreats to her army tactics and attempts to drown the assaulter, though she is stopped in time by one of her colleagues.

Klara wakes in the night after reliving the events in her head. On her patrols, many innocent things trigger her memories.

Klara goes to an illegal dealer looking for drugs to aid her arising addiction.

Klara and her sister go to a club on Saturday night. Whilst dancing, Klara's sister notices a guy looking at her. At that moment a friend of Klara's sister shows up. Klara's sister asks him to introduce her to the guy staring at her and his friends.

Klara's sister leaves with her friend and Klara starts dancing with a woman. Whilst dancing, Klara looks to her sister who gives her a signal to 'call me' as she leaves the club. Klara goes home with the woman she was dancing with.

The morning after, Klara texts her sister. Later whilst on patrol she gets a call informing her that her sister is in the hospital in a coma.

Klara goes back to the club to look at the security footage. She goes to the police detective who is currently investigating her sister's assault.

The detective identifies the man in the images, but informs Klara that he is under 'protection' because of his rich dad.

Klara does a little research to find out where the man, Yvon, lives. Klara begins to look more into Yvon and the head of the patrol team assumes she is 'stoned', when really she is blinded with rage and PTSD.

Klara goes back to the club. Whilst ordering a drink at the bar, she takes the bartender's knife. The woman follows Yvon to the toilet and attempts to attack him, but he is saved by his friends and she is kicked out of the club.

Later, Klara goes to Yvon house, where she is knocked unconscious. Klara meets Yvon's dad who informs her that Yvon is gone away into protection and talks badly about her sister. The father's guards were to kill Klara, but she escapes.

Klara gets a call informing her that her sister has come out of her coma. Whilst visiting her, Klara's sister informs her that Yvon didn't hurt her and she does not want to press charges. Klara is confused and raged.

Klara leaves her sister's hospital room to get a coffee, where she sees the news reporting the father and the case against his son, Yvon. The news reports that the father is leaving the country.

Whilst walking back to her sister's hospital room, Klara notices a nurse, walking from her sister's room, acting strangely. When Klara gets to the room, her sister is experiencing complications.

Klara begins searching for the supposed nurse. They fight.

Klara is determined to bring justice. She hires a van and steal weapons from the anti-terrorist squad base. The police are looking for Klara to stop her.

Klara's mother calls her asking her to come home, the police tell Klara that the supposed nurse is alive and they will do whatever it takes to prosecute her sister's assaulter. Klara refuses and continues on her personal mission.

Klara comes face to face with Yvon's father, who she believes to be her sister's assaulter and pushes him. He falls and hits his head and Klara assumes he is dead.

A S.W.A.T team arrive and stake out the place. Klara escapes. Yvon's father wakes up - he is not dead.

Three months later, Yvon's father is in Dubai and receives a surprise attack from Klara. He gets the death she believes he deserves.

Key questions

• Why didn't Klara have any physical injuries after the fatal bombing in Iraq?
• Did anyone from Klara's team survive the explosion?
• The doctor knew about Klara's arising addiction and mentioned a therapist. Did Klara ever see the therapist? Why wasn't the head of the anti-terrorist squad aware of Klara's condition?
• When the head of the anti-terrorist squad found out about Klara's drug abuse, why didn't he do anything?
• Why was Klara still allowed to work after being transferred and during the news of her sister's assault? And why was she still able to work after when they found out about her drug abuse? Why wasn't she given time off?
• There was a particular officer who looked out for Klara because he noticed she was acting strangely, why didn't he report anything about Klara's behaviour?
• Is Yvon gay? His father mentioned that he is not 'familiar with girls'.
• What 'operation' is Yvon's father running? Why did he rape Klara's sister? Why would Yvon bring Klara's sister home if he is not supposedly 'into girls'? Yvon's father's men mentioned something about 'transferring the girls'. What was Yvon and his father up to? How long have they been raping and assaulting women?
• Three months later Yvon's father was supposedly fully healed and back to normal after his tragic fall. This is very strange, surely he should have suffered brain damage?
• How did Klara find Yvon's father in Dubai? Klara had physical resources and skills in terms of weaponry and defense, however, she didn't appear to have the technical skills to track and trace Yvon's father's moments. How did she find him? Were the police involved?
• In the end, Klara got away with everything. How and why? The police were actively looking for her and the S.W.A.T team assumedly showed up because they knew Klara was there/were finally able to arrest Yvon's father. How was Klara able to get away?

Conclusion

'Sentinelle' was an interesting film. An ex-soldier doing whatever it takes to protect her sister and her dignity, seems absolutely harmless. However, the progression of the story did not quite work out that way. It is a common film technique to abruptly cut to new scenes, however, in this film's case, this technique caused its downfall - too much information was cut out.

At the begging of the film there was a lot of information, storyline and context provided as to why Klara was in the position and state she was, however, the context became irrelevant to justify why Klara was so determined to bring justice to her sister's assaulter. Was she guilty? Was she overprotective? Was she fuelled by PTSD? Was she under the influence of her drug addiction? What was Klara's motive?

In the end, it appears that Klara is blinded by rage and seeks to kill all worthy 'targets'. Klara was played out to be a character that does whatever it takes to protect, but really she is a bloodthirsty character; she sees bad and she will end it. Klara was written to be caring and tactical, at the beginning, but she instinctively went to drown a man because he was hurting his girlfriend. Why would she do that?

Klara seems to have the mindset - 'protection at all costs'. I believe ultimately Klara is a 'sick' or unwell character. Although, I don't think she was meant to be so. The story had all the potential and storyline at the beginning and even referenced to the actual operation Sentinelle (France, January 2015), but lack of detail as the film progressed, led to a confusing and unsettling end which can only describe Klara as a imbalanced character.

Ultimately, I could not understand or support Klara, which is not a positive sign, because her motives were unknown and most of the information at the beginning wasn't followed through to the end. The lack of consistency and clarity led to the dissolvement of the Klara's value and validity in actions. Conclusively, Klara's actions are not one to follow.

Cast

Olga Kurylenko - Klara

Marilyn Lima - Klara's Sister

Andrey Gorlenko - Yvon

Michel Nabokoff - Yvon's father