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S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Esclavo de Dios" )

 

directed by Joel Novoa
Venezuela/Argentina 2013

 

Recruited as a child after the murder of his parents, Lebanese sniper/explosives expert Ahmed (Mohammed Alkhaldi) arrives in Caracas and is given a new identity as a doctor and is instructed to get married, have a child, and wait for the call. A few years later, Ahmed is summoned to Buenos Aires by professor Tarik (Laureano Olivares) who is coordinating a pair of suicide bombing attacks with Ahmed and Rashid (Jose Azrak) as the chosen ones. Intelligence has already reached Mossad agent David (Vando Villamil) who - owing to his own familial loss as a child - is so ruthless and driven as to draw comment from his superior, his colleagues, and his estranged wife. David fails at preventing a bombing that kills eighty local citizens, but suspects that another attack is imminent when he recognizes Ahmed who has slipped out of the hideout to consider everything he is leaving behind while reflecting on the late Rashid's doubts ("What if life is better?"). While David wants to stop Ahmed, he also wants him to lead him to Salim (Fayez Ajwad Amd), a long-unseen terrorist who specializes in recruiting young people to the cause. Ahmed already knows the Israelis are on his trail; but if he does not follow through, he will be branded a traitor and face imminent death along with his family from his own people.

Just when GOD'S SLAVE should be getting unbearably tense, however, it becomes incredibly dumb as this supposedly seasoned terrorist has to have the target right in his sights before he gains a degree of humanity (surely he has looked potential victims in the face before, including little children as the one that gives him pause), and then he attempts to escape via the airport without considering that one or both sides would likely be staking it out and his picture would be all over the place. In spite of out horror and repulsion about what Ahmed is about to do, he seems to be sketched in considerably more sympathetic terms than any of the other characters, including the man who is trying to stop him (who has no compunction about threatening a child's life to get its grandfather to talk or to snap that man's neck when he gets the information he wants out of him); as such, the final scene falls completely flat.

Eric Cotenas

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Theatrical Release: 28 June 2013 (Venezuela)

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DVD Review: Film Movement - Region 1 - NTSC

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

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Distribution

Film Movement

Region 1 - NTSC

Runtime 1:31:00
Video

1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.78 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
Subtitles English, none
Features Release Information:
Studio: Film Movement

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1

Edition Details:
� Making-of Featurette (16:9; 2:21)
� Cast & Crew Interviews (16:9; 5:49)
� Theatrical Trailer (16:9; 2:03)
� Short film 'Machsom' (16:9; 24:30)
� Trailers for 'Stations of the Cross', 'Marie's Story', 'Amour Fou', 'To Kill a Man', 'Room 514', and
� 'For My Father'

DVD Release Date:May 5th, 2015
Amaray

Chapters 12

 

 

 

Comments

The Red One-lensed film looks appropriately smooth and grainless in this dual-layer, progressive, anamorphic encode while the Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo downmix are enveloping for the most part (music sometimes takes the place of dialogue and directional and atmospheric effects in moments of high drama like the aftermath of the explosion). The optional English subtitles are without error, but the English closed-captioning track is from their release of IF YOU DON'T, I WILL (the same is true of the closed captioning track on Film Movement's concurrent release of THE NUN). Extras consist of a very brief behind the scenes featurette, a cast/crew interview segment only slightly longer, a short film by the same director (starring Jose Azrak who has a smaller role in the feature), the trailer, and trailers for six other Film Movement releases.

  - Eric Cotenas

 


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DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

 

 

Distribution

Film Movement

Region 1 - NTSC

 



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