BIRDS OF PREY (AKA LE RAPACE)

Iconic tough guy Lino Ventura stars in this ravishing action-thriller from author/filmmaker Jose Giovanni, whose hard-boiled novels Classe tous risques and Le deuxieme souffle became Ventura-led screen classics. In 1938 Central America, a cynical hitman (Ventura) is hired to assassinate a head of state. Accompanied by a young revolutionary, he moves into a house opposite the presidential palace. As the assassin awaits his target, an unlikely friendship grows between the two men. Featuring vivid landscapes and a score by Francois de Roubaix, this unique France-Italy-Mexico co-production blends elements of a political thriller with a Spaghetti Western for a thoroughly entertaining genre concoction.