[Film Review] FrightFest: Farang (2023)

Farang (2023) is the latest feature film by French director Xavier Gens, and it had its UK premier at FrightFest, debuting on Saturday 26th August in the main screen. Gens is known for being the director of French extreme horror film Frontiers (2007) as well as the poorly received action film Hitman (2007) which starred Timothy Olyphant. When you look back on Gen’s filmography as a director and see a history of films which lean into violence and high octane action, paying particular attention to his work as a director on some episodes of the TV series Gangs of London, you can see that the ingredients for Farang were already there.

During the narrative of the film it is revealed that the word Farang is a Thai word for “foreigner”, and in the case of this film our protagonist Sam/Samir (portrayed by Nassim Lyes) is the titular character, a man who feels that he does not belong. Sam’s story begins in France where he is on day release from the prison he is serving time in and he gets followed by some members of the gang that he had been involved with which led to him serving time. From this brief interaction it is clear that as a person of North African descent, Samir has been made to feel like an outsider by his community forcing him to resort to crime to survive. Whilst on his day release Sam ends up accidentally killing one of the gang members who chased him into an abandoned building site. Sam then runs for his life and the film jumps forward five years in time to Sam now living in Thailand.

LISTEN TO OUR HORROR PODCAST!

The film quickly reveals that Samir has now left crime behind him,has  married a local Thai woman named Mia (portrayed by Loryn Nounay in her debut acting role)  and  has also now stepped into the role of Father by taking on the responsibility of helping to raise Mia’s daughter Dara. Sam has a few different jobs to help provide for his new family. We see that he helps on the fishing boats in the early morning and that he also works as one of the drivers for the airport transport service for a local hotel/resort. The film does a great job of letting us know that Mia has a goal of buying land by the sea and opening up a bar that would be popular with tourists, and this is something that Sam desperately wants to help Mia achieve. Even though Sam has left a life of crime behind him, we see that he also participates in local mixed martial arts fighting rings, utilising his fighting skills acquired during his time in prison. We see that Sam will occasionally throw fights for a cut of the bet winnings. This is a matter of contention between Sam and his trainer but Sam wants to make Mia’s dream a reality. 

Farang is playing in a sandbox with many action films that have come before it, and in a similar vein our protagonists desire to do the right thing, to prove themselves worthy, is what leads to tragedy. Sam and Mia get turned down by the local government for a loan due to Sam’s nationality , even though he is married to Mia. In a desperate need to make it up to Mia Sam decides to turn once more to crime. He meets with a local gangster called Narong (who is also a French man in Thailand) and agrees to help smuggle some drugs into the airport in exchange for the funds needed to help buy the land for Mia. Gens does a terrific job of building tension as we follow Sam into the airport when he has the suitcase with the drugs, and this sequence is one of many throughout the film where you are on the edge of your seat almost unable to breathe as you are gripped by the scene unfolding. This is where everything goes wrong for Sam as he is almost caught by security and as he flees it means he betrays Narong by failing to complete the deal, something which Narong does not appreciate. 

When Sam makes it back to the home he shares with Mia and Dara he quickly realises he is too late as Narong and his henchmen have arrived to punish Sam for his failure. The accidental death that Sam was responsible for at the beginning of the film had no real emotional blowback for the viewer. The next death on screen is a completely different story, when we see Mia murdered in front of Sam and Dara, this sends the viewer reeling. Sam is left for dead as he sees Dara being taken away by one of the henchmen. This is the catalyst for the rest of the film when we see that Sam survives and has been tended to by his fight trainer. When Sam gets back to full strength he sets out to find and rescue Dara and this is the rest of the film as we see Sam and his fight trainer leave a trail of bloodshed behind them as they search for Dara.

There could be an argument made that Farang is not a horror film and was misplaced by being screened at FrightFest, however I think that would be a reductive reading of the film. Yes, there may be no jump scares or typical horror film beats, but the incredibly realistic gory violence could be difficult for the squeamish to stomach. Though more significantly, there is something deeply terrifying about the prospect of your child being stolen by those who would mean you and them harm. There was one specific moment in the film where Sam ends up in a brothel that he has been informed will traffic children for sexual services. Gens creates a sense of disgust as we see Sam in the brothel looking over the clearly young teenage girls one-by-one before he indicates to the madame that he wants younger. I feel that this scene was masterfully crafted in  that it is not suggesting sex work itself is disgusting, it is the desire for young girls and children which is portrayed as the sole cause for revulsion. Yes it is true that Farang does not look like your typical horror film, but to say it does not belong in the genre is a mistake.

Farang may not reinvent the wheel when it comes to high-octane action films, but it does not need to, because it does everything it sets out to do incredibly well. The fight choreography is masterfully done and this film does not pull any punches when it comes to the brutalistic violence. I would highly recommend this film to fans of action films with brutalistic violence that have a strong emotional core underneath the surface. One last thing, you should keep a keen eye out for the elevator scene as I personally believe it will be one of those scenes to make those big lists about the best scenes in horror.

RELATED ARTICLES

---