Black

Beginning worryingly like a Guy Ritchie rip-off with freeze frame introductions of loveable rogues, French heist movie Black quickly confounds your expectations of a ‘Mock Stock’. Black (MC Jean Gab'1) is a Parisian thief who wants out of the game via one last diamond robbery in Senegal. Nothing new there you might think, even after he gets stopped mid-street by a frenzied Shaman who prophesises that Black is 'the lion' who will travel far to defeat 'the snake'. A symbolic prediction surely? Wrong again.

Encountering various characters including a scenery-chewing Russian mercenary who makes a Bond villain look subtle and an undercover girl-cop, Black forges ahead to defeat his slimy nemesis Degrand (François Levantal). The Dakar locations are skillfully used while Gab'1 provides a muscular performance with a light touch. Totally random both in plot and execution, Black is a plethora of diversions coinciding to show how fate cannot be escaped. [Juliet Buchan]