Damaged beings are on the verge of becoming weapons of mass destruction. Their inner demon is waiting for a push, a kick to numb their reasoning, and becoming a killing machine. In Sentinelle, the narrative focuses on a damaged woman, a French Army interpreter who returns home after facing a dreading incident in Syria. Suffering from PTSD, Klara (Olga Kurylenko) is trying to maintain her sanity but losing it uncontrollably. The incident of a young boy exploding himself in Syria keeps haunting Klara’s peace.
Klara was trying to find a balance through medicines and a new social life in her hometown, Nice, where she stayed with her mother and her sister. She was also assigned to be a part of Opération Sentinelle, counter-terrorist operations for which she went on regular patrol around the city. It was the beginning of a smooth life for a traumatized Klara when tragedy rams over her peace. Her sister, Tania, had been raped and savagely beaten into a coma. Police’s inability forces Klara to run her own investigation where she finds out that the man responsible for Tania’s condition is the son of an influential Russian tycoon, Leonid Kadnikov. Leonid and his son hold diplomatic passports and immunity, thus, it’s difficult to carry on the investigation. But it doesn’t stop the damaged soul and she is bound by the urge to take revenge for her sister.
‘Sentinelle’ Ending Explained
Klara finds out that it was not Leonid’s son, Yvan who raped her sister, but it was his father. Klara was trembling with anger when Tania comes out of a coma and asks her to drop the charges and not complicate their lives further. However, when Leonid sends a female assassin to finish off Tania, she is blinded by the rage. She demands revenge at all costs and to fuel it, she steals several lethal weapons from the armory and rides towards Leonid’s hideout. Like a beast on the loose, she creates a bloodbath and kills Leonid’s men, one by one, and finally faces the evil himself. She kicks Leonid’s and throws him off the floor but he isn’t dead. She was about to finish the job when the army infiltrates the location. Klara runs away.
Unable to let the feeling of revenge go out of her system, 3 months later, Klara finds Leonid in a hotel room in Dubai and slashes his throat, putting an end to the chapter. Secretly, like a walking shadow, Klara still keeps a watch on her sister and her mother. However, she can’t meet her own family, because she has become a fugitive.
Sentinelle holds some really gripping moments. It keeps your attention on the hook. From the first scene itself, set in Syria where Klara is dealing with the terrorists, the framing and the dramatic thrill are precisely intact. Each shot of the film delivers information without the use of heavy or long dialogues. It’s very artistic.
The only problem is that the revenge story is something we have seen quite often. PTSD and War veterans turning into fugitives seem like a conflict that is quite a in fashion. Every second war movie is based on the above-mentioned themes. Even on Netflix, The Beast (2020) has a similar storyline where a retired war veteran suffering from PTSD takes matters into his hands when his children are kidnapped. Sentinelle could have gone a different way, with a different story or a plot and it might have turned out to be a really extraordinary film. But with a cliche and over-repetitive conflict, it just a normal flick which you can watch out for fun. In short, it doesn’t leave a lasting impact, nor a message.
Sentinelle is a French action thriller film directed and co-written by Julien Leclercq. It is streaming on Netflix.
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