Partisan is one of 2015's most underrated directorial debuts, a moody allegory concerning homegrown violence and the consequences of blind patronage.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 20, 2020

Kleiman eschews context and dogma to give us an idea of the dizzying fear and paranoia underlying every aspect of cult life, using long takes, slow pans and stifling compositions to create a simultaneous feeling of comfort and danger.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 12, 2019

The idea is intriguing, but it feels as if Kleiman has given us only a sketch with nothing to flesh it out.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 9, 2019

It is an assured and brave debut feature for director and co-writer Ariel Kleiman, who repeatedly resists giving easy answers, or many answers at all, in favour of cultivating a beguiling if ultimately unsatisfying mystery.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 8, 2019

The screenplay called for triumphant and chaotic moments, but instead we are left with a flat shadow of its goal.

| Nov 9, 2018

Partisan combines an inventive story, exquisite cinematography, a wonderful 80s-style electro soundtrack ... and perhaps most of all, provides a space for the greatest performance of Vincent Cassel's career.

| Aug 25, 2018

Kleiman establishes a strong sense of place in a film that intrigues but never comes close to delivering enough explanation, at least for commercial audiences.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 25, 2017

... a world of seductive, ungraspable danger that is as dark and wondrous as any bedtime fairytale.

| Original Score: Recommended | Apr 1, 2017

A big fat meh.

| Dec 13, 2016

Kleiman seems less interested in explaining the whys of his scenario than in observing his characters and their interactions -- a strategy that pays off thanks to excellent lead turns.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2016

The storytelling is possibly a little too wilfully obscure, but whenever the protagonists leave the commune's walled-in compound, the desolate urban landscape outside - shot in the former Soviet republic of Georgia - makes a powerful impression.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2016

A patiently unfolding drama that displays the lengths one will go to provide shelter and community, and what happens if you step out of bounds.

| Original Score: B | Feb 24, 2016

With his feature debut, young Australian filmmaker Ariel Kleiman tells a creepy story about a cult-like commune, anchored by a riveting performance from French actor Vincent Cassel.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 5, 2016

Kleiman's Dogtooth-esque dark drama paints a weird and disturbing portrait of stolen innocence.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 10, 2016

Kleiman has an eye for poetic imagery but the storytelling style is so oblique and dour that this is a jarring and difficult film to watch.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 8, 2016

Cassel's subtle and quietly menacing performance helps compensate for a story that drifts along rather aimlessly at times, while Kleiman's dreamy visuals mark him out as a talent to watch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 7, 2016

Oddly underpowered, anticlimactic and torpidly acted ...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 7, 2016

There's some decent technical stuff here, but the story's a big ol' bust.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 7, 2016

A film trying so hard to upend expectations that it loses itself in the process.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 6, 2016

Partisan is an impressive feature debut; both expertly condemning its paternalistic society, but sadly lacking in a single interesting female character to take a stand to Cassel's complex figure.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Oct 15, 2015