As always, I’m looking to recommend a movie that isn’t always well known, nor from English language origin, and for this week, I’d like to suggest The Raid: Redemption (2011). If you’re up for for some quality entertainment in a form of an action / crime / thriller — look no further. This movie is from Indonesia, and I was blown away by the positive experience when I saw it. What I liked about this movie in particular, was the choreography and the sense of reality of the fight scenes. They were so good directed, performed and captured, that it gives an incredible feeling to the viewer. I also would like to advise the R-rating of this movie.

As a rookie member of an elite special-forces team, Rama is instructed to hang back during a covert mission involving the extraction of a brutal crime lord from a rundown fifteen-story apartment block. But when a spotter blows their cover, boss Tama offers lifelong sanctuary to every every killer, gangster, and thief in the building in exchange for their heads. Now Rama must stand in for the team’s fallen leader and use every atom of his fighting strength – winding through every floor and every room to complete the mission and escape with his life…

Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy,
Directed by:  Gareth Evans

This movie had 11 nominations and won 6 awards. Among the awards were:
Audience Award for Best Film to Gareth Evans at Dublin International Film Festival 2012;
Dublin Film Critics Award for Best Film to Gareth Evans at Dublin International Film Festival 2012;
Indiana Film Journalists Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film at Indiana Film Journalists Association 2012;