Film Review: INDEMNITY: A Familiar Action-Thriller That Allows For Fun and Frustration [Fantasia 2021]

Indemnity Review

Indemnity (2021) Film Review from the 25th Annual Fantasia International Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Travis Taute, starring Jarrid Geduld, Gail Mabalane, Andre Jacobs, Nicole Fortuin, Louw Venter, Abduragman Adams, Hlomla Dandala, Susan Danford, Qaeed Patel, Toni Jean Erasmus, and Grant Powell.

There’s nothing wrong with playing it safe, but doing so can undermine a film’s aims. Take Travis Taute’s feature-length directorial debut Indemnity, for example: a film about a South African firefighter riddled with PTSD who gets tangled up in events beyond his control, put within the frameworks of your typical action-thriller. Through this set-up Taute allows for bits of fun to be had but he also leaves us feeling simply entertained rather than enlightened, and that stylistic confusion gives its heavy psychological subject matter an unintentional sense of levity.

Months after a disastrous fire in the suburbs of Cape Town that lost him two of his fellow firefighters, fire captain Theo Abrams (Jarrid Geduld) is still suffering from gruesome nightmares and the oppressive guilt that their deaths were somehow his fault. Even after a forced administrative leave by his boss Moses (Hlomla Dandala) and some unsuccessful sessions with renowned psychologist Dr. Gillian Tunbridge (Susan Danford), Theo’s PTSD has gotten progressively worse. His struggles are getting in the way of his family life, too, making his wife Angela (Nicole Fortuin) and son Wesley (Qaeed Patel) worried about his future.

In that spirit, Angela – an investigative journalist in her own right – takes seriously the inquiry of a mysterious stranger (Abduragman Adams) who thinks Theo’s life might be in grave danger from some shady government operatives. Much to the stranger’s chagrin he is proven right, as one day Theo wakes up to find Angela dead beside him as the police immediately swarm his home. After his arrest turns into a botched kidnapping plot, Theo goes on the run to learn who exactly is after him, what this stranger told Angela, and how an incredibly determined police general and detective on his tail (Andre Jacobs and Gail Mabalane) fit into all of this. The ‘why’ is also a mystery he must solve, which will lead him further into the depths of a large conspiracy with implications that could drastically reshape all of Africa.

Despite its bluntly melodramatic trappings, Indemnity does approach its topic of PTSD with honest affection. When Geduld isn’t careening off into spurts of overacting, he portrays Theo’s psychological damage with sympathetic panache. Through the flashbacks and reveals of what happened in his past – usually accompanied by him crumbling apart in Angela’s arms or alone in an abandoned warehouse – we share his psychological pain in a genuine and non-manipulative way. Law enforcement officials and industry leaders try to convince Theo to turn himself in for the good of his country as if that’s the only action he’s worthy of taking, ignoring both his pleas for help and the good he’s already done as a firefighter, further compiling the mental and physical hardships he’s already endured. These moments, symbolic of how society’s non-denominational protectors continuously get taken for granted, fuel the bits of righteous political anger at the film’s core and thus reveal the irony (if not pure hollowness) of the antagonists’ calls for patriotism.

Still, it’s hard to take a story of intimate psychological turmoil so seriously when it quickly becomes an action-thriller on a very large scale. While there are plenty of set-pieces that are well-orchestrated and generally exciting to watch (minus some questionable CGI), they tend to undermine the script’s more serious explorations into Theo’s trauma and coping mechanisms. Geduld occasionally showcases Theo’s own guilelessness, stumbling about as he shoots randomly amidst an early kidnapping sequence, yet other moments see him springing into action-hero mode as if he’s a sleeper agent being triggered awake. (And sure, that set-up does sort of fit into the larger narrative, but there are too many irregularities in an otherwise straightforward filmmaking style for such a decision about character to seem purposeful, much less accidentally ambiguous.)

At times Indemnity feels like Taute got obsessed with Wormwood and went down the rabbit hole of MKUltra paranoia, but unlike Morris’ re-enacted docuseries it trades in the subtlety and quiet horror of inconceivable powers operating just beyond our reach for big and loud fears right in front of us, with nary an inkling of new insight. (Honestly, despite whatever critiques you have against China and the authenticity of its state’s practiced form of communism, the line where a character groups the country together with the United States and labels them both “colonial powers” – a white business leader nonetheless, with no sense of self-awareness – was pretty laughable.) Taute is simultaneously working in the spirits of both 1970s Hollywood political thrillers and modern-day action blockbusters, but he forgets that that was perfectly synthesized already by the ‘70s wunderkind Spielberg himself in 2002 with Minority Report, a caliber of which Indemnity sadly is not.

Yet I’d be remiss if I didn’t once again emphasize Taute’s eye for action – ironically the film’s downfall, but in the most fun way a downfall can be. Rather than be spliced all to hell Taute lets the hand-to-hand combat scenes play out through close-ups and long(er) takes, and apart from the bombastic finale the set-pieces (though still exaggerated in their own rights) are relatively reserved, which adds a sense of severity to the entire ordeal. Such steadiness even makes the innocuous feel exciting, like an early-on chase scene throughout a library and nighttime park that’s all done on foot.

Despite being competently produced, Indemnity‘s archetypal approach dulls its ultimate message about trauma patients and psychological healing. Taute misses the chance to create something new and exciting and settles into something familiar … though admittedly still kind of exciting. If I were to be incredibly cynical about seeing this same story told over and over, I would tell you action-thriller junkies and skeptical newcomers what Dr. Tunbridge told Theo: “You must relive the trauma”. But I’m not that cruel, so I’ll leave the mission up to you … that is, should you choose to accept it.

Rating: 5/10

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