This award-winning thriller piqued the interest of audiences at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival by taking home the “Special Jury Award for Cinematography” and now it’s set to open in select theaters today. 28-year-old Ariel Kleiman makes his directorial debut with Partisan, a film about one child’s coming of age and maturity in a sequestered commune, facing his moral conscience all alone. Despite the broadly appealing storyline Partisan, unfortunately, will leave the audience with more questions than answers.

An off the grid commune on the edge of a crumbling city is where 11-year-old Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel) lives with his mother and figurehead Gregori (Vincent Cassel), along with multiple other children and their mothers. Like a scene out of Prophet’s Prey, Gregori is the “Warren Jeffs” of the secular compound; he teaches the children how to grow vegetables, care for livestock, and essentially survive off the grid, a lá Jeffs. Gregori’s main objective: training his child army to be thriving assassins.

For a film that’s as forcefully plot driven as Partisan is, it’s a disappointment that more screen time wasn’t dedicated to Gergori’s backstory- just why did he create this commune?

For years, Alexander has gone along with the scheduled killings of people in the outside world but with every mission, he becomes growingly more interested in life outside of his home. He begins to defy Gregori, and the 11-year-old’s attitude starts to chip away at Gregori’s cool and calm demeanor. What was once a “father and son” type relationship now becomes “good vs evil”, and only one will come out on top.

Partisan has all of the makings of a cult classic, a sinister thrilling story and fantastic performances from Cassel and Chabriel. Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), a notable French actor, doesn’t disappoint as a sympathetic yet sadistic cult leader. On the opposite end of the experience spectrum is Jeremy Chabriel, who astonishingly makes his acting debut here. His talent far surpasses his 13 years and mark my words, he is one to watch. Chabriel is on a path to greatness.

Unfortunately, the film suffers from two very big flaws which may keep it from succeeding as a cult classic. First, the lack of tension between Gregori and Alexander in the film’s latter half is weak and not executed to its fullest potential. The screenplay called for triumphant and chaotic moments, but instead we are left with a flat shadow of its goal. The second, and probably biggest, flaw, is the lack of character building on the part of Gergori. For a film that’s as forcefully plot driven as Partisan is, it’s a disappointment that more screen time wasn’t dedicated to Gergori’s backstory- just why did he create this commune? What secrets was he hiding from his followers that he did not want them to explore the outside world? Above all else, why was he raising his child army as assassins? Without this information, we are left questioning just who to root for and why we should root for them.

From the very first frame that sets up the vast dystopian landscape, Partisan draws you in. The visuals are immediately arresting. Heavy influence from George Miller’s Mad Max is apparent in the films’ production and characters but still remains authentic to Kleiman’s vision. Admittedly, and disappointedly, my hopes that Partisan would be one of the better films of the year seems unlikely.

Partisan opens at Laemmle NoHo 7 and on Demand today.