District 13: This Parkour Classic is the Best Action Movie You Never Saw

In the mid-2000s, you could be forgiven for thinking action films had gotten a little stale. The genre tends to go in waves; whenever something hits in a big way, you get derivative, increasingly stale copies. Think about all the Die Hard rip-offs or the way every movie tried to copy The Matrix with bullet time and wire-work post-1999. Heck, we’re experiencing it right now with superhero movies and John Wick clones. Whenever this happens, it’s more-or-less left to international cinema to come along and shake us up with something different, done far outside the mainstream, to revitalize the genre. That happened in 2004, when a small movie from France, District 13, introduced Parkour to mainstream audiences.

So, what’s Parkour? Think of it as free running in an urban setting mixed with acrobatics and martial arts. It was founded by the star of District 13, David Belle, a Parisian who came from a line of highly skilled rescuers in the Paris fire brigade, whose skills rubbed off on David, along with a degree of military training running obstacle courses. He founded a group called Yamakasi, which took a page from Asian martial arts disciplines and the cinematic kung fu prowess of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and other Hong Kong martial arts action film stars. Eventually, the group drummed up some notoriety in France, with action director and producer Luc Besson bankrolling a 2001 film called Yamakasi. 

Belle himself wasn’t featured in the film, but he became much in demand doing his stunts in commercials. He also started coordinating stunts for various Besson movies, leading to District 13. The film is a small-scale action film, shot in French, that features Belle as Leito, a resident of District 13, which is a ghetto of 2 million people that has been sealed off by the government and essential been allowed to govern itself – shades of Escape from New York, a movie producer Luc Besson was a little too fond of ripping off, as years later when he made too close of a copy with Lockdown, he wound up sued by John Carpenter – who won.

But back to District 13. At the time, Besson ran a studio called EuropaCorp, which specialized in churning out movies for the international market. Their international hits included the Jet Li vehicles, Kiss of the Dragon and Unleashed, the Transporter series, and eventually the Taken films. Some of their biggest hits were explicitly for the French market, with the Taxi franchise especially popular. District 13 was made for that market, with it designed as a vehicle for Belle, as well as Cyril Raffaelli, who plays an undercover cop sent into the district to disarm a bomb that’s been planted on a missile aimed at Paris. Belle’s Leito is a Robin Hood type figure who runs afoul of the District’s primary enforcer, K2, who kidnaps his sister. Thus, the two pair up to infiltrate the ghetto.

District 13 was the first film for director Pierre Morel, who would later helm Taken. One thing about the film is that it was shot with a relatively low budget, so instead of CGI, it’s done in an old school way, jampacked with fight sequences that are tinged with parkour. The best is the first big action sequence, where Leito uses Parkour to escape an apartment building overrun with thugs. Running a tight 86 minutes, it must be said that the movie never quite reaches the heights it does during this first action scene as the movie goes on, but it remains a tight, engaging action flick, with Belle so good in the lead that it’s crazy his career never quite took off.

Part of this might be due to his heavy French accent. District 13 was given a virtual shot-for-shot remake in English called Brick Mansions, which co-starred the late Paul Walker, with Belle reprising his role, but he wound up dubbed in the final cut. Nevertheless, he has a solid career as an actor and choreographer in France.

One interesting thing worth noting is that while District 13 was only a modest success in France, it became a cult hit in North America, with parkour suddenly showing up in movies like Casino Royale, with former Yamakasi member Sébastien Foucan memorably going up against Daniel Craig’s James Bond, in a sequence that solidified the later as the new 007 in the minds of many. District 13 eventually got a sequel, District 13: Ultimatum, but it’s not as good as the original. District 13 – or Banlieu 13 as it’s called in French, is relatively easy to find and a must-watch for action fans. But, if you’re gonna try parkour at home – be careful. It’s a good way to break bones. 

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