The Last Panthers is what Americans used to call a foreign film, only now it should probably be called foreign TV.
It’s a six-hour closed-end series, already shown in France and the U.K., about a French jewel robbery whose epicenter quickly shifts to the murky backstreets of Serbia, from whence the thieves hail. It premieres Wednesday (4/13) at 10 p.m. ET on Sundance.
On the most basic level it’s a cops-and-robbers story, wherein French policeman Khalil Rachedi (Tahar Rahim) tries to track down theft mastermind Milan Celik (Goran Bogdan, top), whimsically known as The Animal.
The Last Panthers are the gang for which he works, and their unofficial full name is the Pink Panthers. That’s not homage to Peter Sellers. It’s because they seem to be the last survivors of a notorious Eastern European jewelry theft ring.
Also on The Animal’s trail: Naomi Franckom (Samantha Morton), a British insurance claims adjuster whose goal is to retrieve the 15 million Euros worth of stolen diamonds.
She’s not helped much by her boss Tom Kendle (John Hurt, left), just as Milan isn’t always helped by his boss, Zlatko Mladic (Igor Bencina).
Given that it runs six hours, The Last Panthers also gets a little more complicated than just running down a crook.
The Animal turns out to be a complex character whose real goal is not to get rich, but to save a life. The words “Robin Hood” come up early.
Naomi seems several years earlier to have been a UN soldier stationed in Serbia, where she picked up some memories that weren’t all rosy and that this case resurrects.
Once we clear the opening scenes, which include the heist itself and its immediate aftermath, no one will mistake The Last Panthers for standard U.S. or even British police drama.
Scenes run longer. A sympathetic character smokes a cigarette. Few conversations are straightforward while many are moody and atmospheric, with much of the meaning left unsaid.
Characters end inconclusive scenes with blank stares. The music is ominous and subtitles abound.
The Last Panthers also looks foreign. It’s not technically a black-and-white film, but most scenes have about as much color as the zombies on The Walking Dead. If you expect to see the sun, you will almost always be disappointed.
By the end of the first hour it’s clear The Last Panthers will be awash in moral ambivalence, with neither the good guys nor the bad guys having a monopoly on righteousness or evil.
The show is quality work, a fine example of how what could easily have been a serious European film can now become a serious European television show.
American popcorn television, it is not.