Athena is a French action thriller that was released on 23rd September 2022 about the riots that take place when a young boy is said to have been murdered by the Police. Feeling angry and helpless the youth of the community take charge and create a plan to overthrow the police. The movie is filled with chaos, destruction and tragedy. Here is a deep dive into the ending of the film.

The film is directed by French filmmaker Romain Gavras and stars Dali Benssalah as Abdel, Sami Slimane as Karim, Anthony Bajon as Jerome, Ouassini Embarek as Moktar, Alexis Manenti as Sebastien and Karim Lasmi as Imam. The movie is 1hr 37minutes long.

Athena Ending Explained

In the film, Karim and Abdel are two brothers who have been greatly affected by the loss of their younger Brother. However, they both have a different way of dealing with the loss as we see Karim weaponize and create a group in the Athenian community to fight against the french police. On the other hand, Abdel believes that the best way to get answers for his brother’s death is to cooperate and work with law enforcement. This creates tension between the brothers as Karim views Abdel as a traitor to his community and to his brother’s memory.

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In order to keep his mother’s word, Abdel puts his own life in danger to get his brother away from the chaos. But Karim refuses to surrender and instead threatens to attack his brother if he interferes further in his life. What follows, are attacks from the police with pepper sprays and barricades which are then followed by opposing attacks of explosives and fireworks.

During these attacks, one of the police officers flees and is used as a hostage by Karim. But once again Abdel tries to interfere and save the policeman so his brother is not killed. Here we see the brothers battle it out neither trying to understand the other’s side. When Karim refuses to let the hostage policeman go, he decides that he must do it under force and both he and the cop rush into one of the buildings where Imam is trying to hide his stolen guns.

Soon after, the police surround Karim who then tries to throw an explosive which causes him to burn to death as Abdel stands there screaming his name. We see a heartbreaking shot of Abdel holding the lifeless body of his brother as he lays a white cloth over his body. Unable to process the loss of not one but two brothers simultaneously, Abdel goes into a state of shock.

When Imam tries to get him to lay his brother’s body to help him hide the guns, Abdel loses it and ruthlessly beats him to death. This scene is not only shocking but also disturbing to see as Abdel looks like he’s in trance like state when he’s violently punching Imam. After having bloodied his hands, he decides to do his brother’s work and gives the police an ultimatum to the cop for the names of Idir’s murderers.

Some of the men tell Abdel that Sebastian who is in charge of breaking open the safe has decided to blow up the building using gas tanks. With all his might he evacuates the area. When the police tell him that the perpetrators are not in fact the police but one of the extremist groups.

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However, they refuse to provide him with any names which further aggravates Abdel who at this point has reached his breaking point. In anger, he grabs the gun and points it at the cop and shoots it close to his face. We see how tired and hopeless he has become through this entire process as he and the cop lay on the floor.

On hearing that the building is about to be blown, everyone rushes out including the cop except Abdel who lives helplessly on the floor crushed by his harrowing loss and guilt. As the snow comes in through the building Abdel grieves as the police arrest the group and the cop and rush into the building.

Soon after, Sebastian sets the bomb off and the entire building bursts into flames. Even though Abdel could have saved his life, the pain and the suffering that he experienced were too great that he was unable to see any light ahead.

As the movie comes to an end we see sounds of a struggle and a video clip of a young boy lying on the floor as men wearing police attire enter a van. They then walk into the forest and burn their clothes with a visually striking shot of a police uniform burning in the flames. One of the men is seen with a Celtic cross tattoo which could be a hint at a religious hate crime. Earlier in the film, the news talks about an extremist group that could have been the reason for Idir’s death.

Could this mean that the police were innocent and that it was the extremist group that was committing these brutal killings against the Athenian community? It could mean that the police’s lack of investment in investigating these crimes enabled this group to kill people without fearing any repercussions.

Watch Athena on Netflix

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