The Scotsman Review

PERHAPS it's unfortunate that The Believer, which has as its main character a Jewish Neo-Nazi skinhead, comes in the wake of such close cousins as Romper Stomper and American History X. It's a far better and more considered piece of work, although equally inflammatory in its subject matter, marking an electrifying debut as a director for veteran screenwriter Henry Bean.

Although it was the recipient of one of the top awards at the Sundance Film Festival earlier in the year, The Believer has failed to make it into the cinemas - although a cable airing in the States is in the offing. The film presents a chilling portrait of Danny, a young man (brilliantly and calculatedly created by Ryan Gosling) who has to confront the contradictions of a personal identity crisis. He used to be a student with a thorough knowledge of the teachings in the Torah, but who created so many waves in his religious instruction class that he was kicked out.

Gosling's character first begins to hate the teachings and what they stand for, and subsequently turns the hatred into a denial of his own identity, a decision that leads him into membership of a neo-fascist group. Even the most hardline anti-Semites become scared by his behaviour. He infiltrates New York high society fascist circles, in particular one group headed by Billy Zane and Theresa Russell, where he has an affair with their daughter (played by Summer Phoenix). He becomes one of their disciples and is sent out to enlist recruits and raise money.

Bean wafts in flashbacks to his religious and family upbringing, contrasting in startling clarity with the hate machine that he has turned himself into. Even trying to continue a relationship with his father, who's an invalid, proves an ordeal. After a full-scale fight in a kosher delicatessen he is sentenced to "sensitivity training" with elderly Holocaust survivors, where he is unable to comprehend their lack of action in the face of Nazi horrors. Then he and his thuggish gang break into a synagogue and plant a bomb - during the course of which he realises he still respects the ancient and sacred objects on display.

In Gosling's hands, the character always remains a terrifying enigma. Just when you think you have him, he escapes further along the road to self -destruction. In a way, Bean is right to keep him at arm's length, because any rational explanation would never satisfy our curiosity. The film is based on the true story from the mid-1960s, of a young man who committed suicide after being exposed by a reporter from the New York Times.

The style of the film sits somewhere between a documentary approach and a dramatic feature. The camerawork is first-rate, plus there's an edgy score to unsettle the viewer at every turn. It's understandable some distributors might tread warily with a film that punches such a controversial premise. Earlier this year, a New York Rabbi launched a campaign against the film, claiming it could be "a primer for anti-Semitism".

The Rabbi misread Bean's intentions. It's precisely because the film does not deliver easy solutions that it comes across as enlightening and perceptive. It deserves a platform; Edinburgh has seen fit to give it one.

- Richard Mowe