Gangsta

Four friends in Antwerp are small-time dealers. Adamo, Volt, Badia and Rachid want to be somebody, and one day a large shipment of cocaine falls into their hands. The goods are not theirs. Before long a boss in Amsterdam and a Colombian cartel are both after them, and the four turn on each other. The film does not hide how much it loves the shapes of the gangster genre: fast cutting, slow-motion walks, loud music. What belongs to it is the setting, the Moroccan neighbourhoods of Antwerp, a street language mixing Flemish and Arabic, and the drug traffic of a real port city. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah directed, co-wrote and worked on the edit. The cast includes Matteo Simoni, Nora Gharib, Said Boumazoughe, Gene Bervoets and Axel Daeseleire. It opened in Belgium on 24 January 2018. The pair went to Hollywood after it. Who it is for: anyone who likes European gangster films and high-energy storytelling. Who it is not for: anyone looking for originality. The references to Scarface and its like are very open, the female characters are thin, and the violence hangs between being made to look good and being criticised.