SFIAAFF: Sobhraj
We were excited about seeing Sobhraj, as we've always been fascinated by the story of Charles Sobhraj, the subject of this film and a suspect in over 20 (the film's description claims 50, but that seems way higher than any statistics we found elsewhere) murders across several Asian countires. Not just a murderer, Sobhraj was also a people-influencer on the level of Charles Manson, a thief, and a con man. The guy is absolutely fascinating -- read this profile here if you don't believe us.
As much as we were ready to love this slender (70 minutes) documentary, we bristled at the introducer's assertion that the reason for the inclusion of this film in the festival was because "you always hear that there aren't any Asian serial killers" (part of the festival's thematic exploration of male identity?) Between the relatively recent Charles Ng case in the Bay Area and the fact that even former FBI profiler Robert Ressler freely admits that Asian serial killers are not an anomaly, this seemed like a stretch to us.
Image of Charles Sobhraj from the film
The highly stylized film (think "The Real World" editing meets torture and murder. Doesn't that sound nice?) does a cynically excellent job of depicting the inherent inaccessability of Sobhraj's character. Even while watching the filmmakerinterview Sobhraj (who reminded us of an older David Duchovny), the viewer got no insight into the man himself.
Far more engaging are the interviews with various investigators who devoted themselves to thwarting Sobhraj. Their frustration and anger over his continual ability to evade capture and prosecution stood in sharp contrast to both Sobhraj's smarm and the filmmakers' tabloidesque packaging of the crimes.
We left the film without ever feeling fully absorbed by it, perhaps due in part to the projection problems that plagued the screening we attended. Technical issues aside, we must assume that this film is intended less as a deliberate portrait of a multiple murderer and more as an illustration of the impossible complexity of said murderer's character. If that was indeed the filmmaker's intention, it suceeded admirably.