CONSEQUENCES Is A Good Take On A Familiar Theme

Watching CONSEQUENCES, I remembered substitute teaching in a public high school of 4000 students. My assignment for the week was the senior students who had been in the lowest level classes for four years. They did not read or debate. They sat, played on their phones, bitched, and fought me and each other. They sometimes talked of dares but never dreams. Mostly, they waited.

You may have seen a movie or two about young men doomed to reform school. It has been a Hollywood staple for decades.

But CONSEQUENCES, from Slovenia, and now on Dekkoo and IMB TV (free), is well done, And while you suspect the sexual discord that the gang embodies will eventually explode, the script is taut, and the cast is good.

Matej Zemljic grounds the film with terrific work as Andrej, an 18-year old whose best friend lives in a box. As he learns the ways of the detention center, he - like the other men - is given great attention by Zeljko (Timon Sturbej) and his henchmen, who know precisely how to get what they want.

The dangerous environment of rap and rape is captured beautifully by writer/director Darko Stante. Production Designer Spela Kropusek and Cinematagrpher Rok Nagode do excellent work to bring us to the tense edge of danger and despair.

You can add CONSEQUENCES to the body of work that is well-meaning and potent. Could watching it change the trajectory of youth abandoned in our education systems?