Film Exposure

You know the drill: one high-rise apartment building, a bunch of more or less competent cops, and a least a couple of one-man-armies on either side of the fray. The Die Hard/The Raid formula continues to thrive the world over, and this time it is taking us to Belgium. Director Bob Colaers moves on from the horror comedy (Trizombie, 2024) to enter pure action territory, but with influences this iconic, can he reach the highs of the genre?

Suleyman, a Belgian Muslim of Moroccan descent who reads the Book of Job and wears a jacket from the Olympique de Marseille, a French soccer team (I did not see that combination of character traits coming, I’ll give them that), is back after a seven-year spell in prison for assaulting a pair of overzealous cops. Determined to start fresh and avoid trouble, he first wants to pay a visit to his ailing mother, who lives in the ‘Paradise’ tenement located in a no-go zone controlled by a ruthless criminal nicknamed Prince. It just so happens that at the same time, Yasmine, a tough cop who educates her daughter to be tough like her is taking part in a raid-like police operation to take down said criminal. One building, no exit, and lots of bones to break.

The main emotional draw obviously comes from the protagonist played by Saïd Boumazoughe, who also co-wrote the script. While he is portrayed as a pretty archetypal ex-con in search of redemption, perhaps the aforementioned presence of the Book of Job in the opening hints at the trying nature of his upcoming trials. Unlike Job himself, who in all three main monotheistic religions had his faith sorely tested through pain and suffering, Suleyman’s journey through pain will only test his resilience and will to survive.

The immigration background of most of the residents and occupants of the Paradise tenement (as opposed to the cops mostly being of white Belgian descent) certainly gives the film a certain flavor, but the script doesn’t seem quite sure what to do with it. This was better exploited in Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s recent Gangstas (another Belgian film). There is no apparent philosophical or political stance behind it in Attack on Paradise. The script certainly makes choices: the police snipers take out the mobster’s watchmen by surprise (No arrests? Alright then!); they decide to perform their raid in broad daylight all dressed in black (but since there seems to be no one in the streets anyway, they might be right); Prince’s right-hand man at one point sort of just appears where the script needs him to be despite it being physically impossible, and the film ends up hinting at an affinity between the two main characters, which was never really implied nor explored in earlier scenes.

With that said, Attack on Paradise is an action movie, so how is the action? There is a welcome variety in the type of kinetics portrayed here. The first half is heavier in shootouts, with a high bodycount face-off opening the festivities, followed by shorter skirmishes, including one lit up only by muzzle flashes. It’s a relatively well executed scene, though the idea has been explored many times in cinema since 1925 (see The Death Ray, directed by Lev Kuleshov).

Among the most unexpected swings is a night vision POV fight against junkies, that’s filmed like a zombie flick. Again, one should assume there is no substantial takeaway to be found here, because the contrary would work as a disservice to the film (junkies portrayed as brainless undead enemies? Hmm.). The mid-film, neon-drenched brawl which sets up the duo dynamic for rest of the runtime, is probably one of the most memorable action set pieces in the film, exploring a level of nastiness that should quench the thirst of certain fans of on-screen violence. The snooker fight amps up the violence a little more, while the final fight unfortunately ends on a somewhat anticlimactic note, with kills and resolutions that aren’t the most satisfying in the genre.

The fights and stunt work were supervised by Rafik Bobo and Marco Maas from Stunt Base, a team involved in a lot of projects from Belgium and the Netherlands. Perhaps director Bob Colaers’ lack of experience in the genre can explain some of the underwhelming editing, but Stunt Base does deliver some solid stunts and competent enough fight choreographies. The film probably needed more humour to be more memorable, like the scene in the bathroom with Suleyman fighting the bald brute while Yasmine takes a toilet break, oblivious to the chaos unfolding next door. (Or more scenes with goats. The goats were cool).

Attack on Paradise – Seen as part of Fantastic Fest 2026; no European release date yet
Directed by Bob Colaers
With Saïd Boumazoughe, Clara Cleymans