Athena is a film telling a story set in France about the death of a young boy that sparks conflict in the city. His three older brothers are all separated into different communities after his death because they have their own perspectives about who killed him and why.
Two out of the three brothers communicate with each other, while one, Abdel, wanted to start an investigation.
There are many moving parts in Athena, and each brother has a different way to navigate the situation. However, once they are together, their difference in approach cause conflict between them.
Karim, who is a rebel, wants to gain some leverage over the police. He captures one, and in return, they want the cops who killed his brother, Idir. As the mob chases Abdel, he asks his other brother, Moktar, for protection, who is hiding in part of the Athena estate himself. The brothers have different suggestions to get out of this predicament and get justice for their younger brother.
Moktar believes that if they kill the captured police officer, it would send a message to them. Instead, Abdel suggests that they offer the police officer as a sign of surrender, therefore receiving a pardon, and he can escape.
After the death of Karim, Moktar suggests that they escape together. Out of such anger that his brother is so heartless, he beats him up and switches sides to join the rebels. Abdel starts to interrogate the police officers and whoever he can get his hands on as he becomes frantic.
At the end of the movie, Athena’s director, Romain Gavras, ends up showing what had happened to Idir in the first place. Idir is beaten up and left for dead. Those who did it ended up taking their police uniforms off as the flames burned it all to pieces.
They had markings on their necks with a symbol of a cross inside a circle. This became more than a hit and became a more personal story about religious beliefs.
