Hard to Be a God (2015)

Directed by: Aleksei German
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Dated from 2013 but actually being exhibited in NYC theaters in 2015, “Hard to Be a God” is the swan song from Russian filmmaker, Aleksei German, who died in 2013. The film is a freakish three-hour odyssey, with dark venues on the background, based on the 1964 novel of the same name by the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Adapted by Mr. German and Svetlana Karmalita, the script is outlandishly drawn by an endless succession of abominable experiences and killings, presented in black and white, and set in a medieval, outer planet called Arkanar. The foggy, swampy, and muddy landscapes, together with the fierce hunt for thinkers and wise men, throw us into a chaos taken from the most hellish descriptions by Dante. Imagine a nefarious version of “Lord of the Rings”, with no magic or color, and injected by indecency, violence, eccentricity, and eeriness. The film starts by introducing the feared noble scientist, Don Rumata (Leonid Yarmolnik), who is sent from Earth, in an attempt to save the persecuted wise ones. But for that, he will need the help of a doctor, Budhak, who had disappeared mysteriously. Seen as a God, and with more than 300 ears cut from the evildoers, Rumata will become fatigued from the murkiness that reigns in the planet where nobody seems to have a heart. Sometimes the film moves in a confusing way, bursting with so many odd characters and huddled scenarios – the ones that you can almost smell the pestilent air. The film wouldn’t lose meaning if trimmed for at least half-hour, but what might be exhaustive for some viewers, becomes a delight for others, especially for the enthusiasts of bizarre art house with a hint of classic. Here, one can find some terms of comparison with the last Ben Wheatley’s “A Field in England” and the Czech classic “Marketa Lazarova”. Monstrous and hilarious by turns, “Hard to Be a God” is a grotesque epic that despite nauseous, grabs you by the balls.

The Fool (2014)

Directed by: Yuriy Bykov
Country: Russia

Movie Review: The multiple awarded “The Fool”, from emergent director Yuriy Bykov, is a pulsing drama that takes a bitter look in contemporary Russia and its socio-political problems. The hero here, in the true sense of the word, is Dima Nikitin (Artyom Bistrov), a modest, yet smart plumber who doesn’t hide his will to go further in his career. He’s studying hard to be a civil engineer, even knowing it’s going to be strictly necessary to bribe someone in the governmental department to take a position of that kind. Family life - with his wife and little son - is far from being perfect, since they still live with his parents, confined to an old house that doesn’t reunite the best conditions. His untouchable honesty, a virtue he gained from his hopeless father, will have a price after a call to inspect a burst pipe in District A, the most problematic neighborhood in town. A crack that goes from the first to the ninth floor of the decrepit building clearly indicates that it might fall in the next hours. Promptly, Dima reports the fact to the mayor, Nina Galaganova (Natalya Surkova was brilliant), who was in a degrading party, celebrating her birthday with her corrupt staff. With 820 people in danger, she shows concern about the problem and determination in solving it, but will the ‘system’ allow her to do the right thing? “The Fool” counts with exceptional performances, exhibiting enough intrigue, and uncovering the moral filth hidden under the carpet of bureaucracy and unreasonable solutions. It’s also packed with miserable scenarios of poverty, violence and drugs, and all the painful realities that are neglected in order to feed the wealth of the highest Russian patents. Yes, lamentably in some shabby countries, honesty and integrity are mistaken for foolishness.

III (2015)

Directed by: Pavel Khvaleev
Country: Russia / Germany

Movie Review: Pavel Khvaleev's sophomore feature film, “III”, can be as much contemplative and idyllic as sinister and eerie. Ayia (Polina Davydova) and Mirra (Lyubov Ignatushko) get completely devastated when their mother falls sick and dies from a mysterious disease that is making more and more victims over the city. While the older sister, Ayia, finds strength in her religious faith to deal with the grief, Mirra shows to be a non-believer, rejecting God, as she feels responsible for her mother’s death. She eventually catches the fatal disease, falling in a sort of delirious state where dark dreams mirror a hidden past of traumas and suffering. Soon an order to abandon the house arrives to the desperate Ayia, who can only count with the help of the town’s priest and family friend, Father Herman (Evgeniy Gagarin). The latter revealed to be wobbly in his faith but swore to take care of the sisters. Resorting to mystical practices and an esoteric book written by a shaman, the priest will try to connect the sisters’ minds, since according to him, the only way to save Mirra is to find and kill the deepest fear that resides in her subconscious. A burdensome journey to her sister’s worst nightmares doesn’t shake Ayia’s determination. Will this be sufficient to save Mirra? The powerful score, together with the intense images extracted from Igor Kiselev’s beautiful cinematography are the most positive aspects in “III”, a horror tale that couldn’t avoid gaps in the plot and a confusing narrative. It creates some good moments, though. The abrupt conclusions might divide the fans of the genre, but even flawed, a few thrills and surprises are guaranteed.

Leviathan (2014)

Directed by: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Russian cult director, Andrei Zvyagintsev, doesn’t stop to astonish me with precise contemporary tales set in his country of origin. “Leviathan”, presents the same quality as his three previous masterpieces - “The Return”, “The Banishment” and “Elena” – this time introducing some mythological tones, inspired on the Book of Job, and moving in the same measured way, to rub hard in our faces the hypocrisy, injustice and corruption of a rusty, yet dangerous Russian system composed by unscrupulous politicians, dishonest cops and selfish representatives of the church. In order to cope with these shameful realities, the common people drown themselves in vodka, whether to forget the miseries of life, or to celebrate a relaxed time together. The script, co-written by Zvyagintsev and his habitual partner, Oleg Negin, is centered in Kolya, an ordinary man who is ordered to leave his house, located in a remote peninsula, since the dishonored mayor has other plans for that piece of land. His last hope is the arrival of Dmitri, an old friend from the times when he served in the army, now turned into a respected lawyer with good connections in Moscow. When the case was evolving favorably, Kolya finds out that his wife, Lylia, is having an affair with Dmitri. He eventually forgives her, to notice afterward that it’s Roma, his depressed son, who seems to require the most urgent attention. Not neglecting some humor, the grim “Leviathan” strikes us with its landscapes, truths and symbolism, leaving us frozen in our chairs but boiling inside with all the cynicism and terrifying procedures of Mr. Putin’s regime and his vassals. Oddly, the film counted with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture but didn’t get a screening permit in the country.

The Conductor (2012)

Directed by: Pavel Lungin
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Delivering less than it promised, “The Conductor”, presents a mix of stories inside a group of performers from a famous Russian orchestra that travels to Jerusalem to perform the religious oratorio ‘St. Matthew Passion’. The drama is centered on the feared conductor Slava Petrov (Vladas Bagdonas) who receives a fax informing about his son’s death in Jerusalem, a few days before his departure. Once there, he’ll learn that his artist son became member of a secluded group, having collected several debts that led him to hang himself. He just left a painting, a replica of the famous ‘The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb’, in which Christ is replaced by his father. In parallel, we can follow the insecurities of a lonely singer who believes he’s not wanted in the orchestra, and the end of a marriage of another singer, Sergey, who feels tied up in the relationship with his jealous and religious-obsessed wife, feeling attracted to Olga whom he met in the plane. Meanwhile, Olga will lost track of her two kids in the perilous market streets of Jerusalem. Despite its fine performances and appealing images, “The Conductor” revealed some trouble embracing the stories and giving them a final strong conclusion. The religious chants created a special mood (the most valuable aspect in the film) that not always corresponded to what the pic was showing us. Made of fatal coincidences and ‘deaf’ dialogues, it adopts serious tones in its attempt to balance all the guilt, pride, faith, and repentance of its characters, a goal that wasn’t totally achieved.

Stalingrad (2013)

Directed by: Fedor Bondarchuk
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Shot in 3D for IMAX format, Russian WWII blockbuster “Stalingrad” is excessively graphical and noisy, relying on a deficient narrative to depict the drama lived in 1942 by a group of Russian soldiers in order to keep a strategic building in their possession, after the German onslaught. Some images are grotesque and completely out of reality, like angered soldiers in flames shooting incessantly, and constant use of slow motion to depict the battle scenes, where extremely saturated colors and an ornate composition give a non-natural air to the picture. Through silent ambushes or explosive offensives, the war scenes conveyed fierceness but not exactly reality. At certain point, soldiers from both sides were fighting over the two women stuck inside the building, and not even the story about the five fathers of the narrator, or the explanation on how a famous tenor became cold and cruel after volunteer himself, were interesting enough. Filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk preferred the elaborated methods, so misleading and exhaustive, to the simple ones capable to create a suspenseful atmosphere. I also can’t choose a performance that has stood out, since everybody seemed lost among the debris. The score composed by the acclaimed Angelo Badalamenti, widely known for his work in David Lynch’s movies, did its part without surprise. Assuredly, “Stalingrad” doesn’t make justice to one of the most important and bloodiest battles of WWII.

A Long and Happy Life (2013)

Directed by: Boris Khlebnikov
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear, “A long and happy life”, is the sixth feature film directed by Russian helmer Boris Khlebnikov. The film depicts in gloomy tones, the sad story of Sasha, a farmer who is invited by the local government administrators to close his business, located at the Kola Peninsula, in exchange of a monetary compensation. Trying to fight for a land he put so many efforts in, Sasha realizes he is completely tied by the corrupt authorities and constantly struggles with the idea of having to open the door of poverty to his employees, most of them not so young. The situation gets more complicated when his girlfriend, Anya, who works for the government, doesn’t stay on his side when he decides to stand firm for his farm and workers. The film, with its contemporary story and paradoxical title, wasn’t so new in terms of plot, dragging itself in its heaviness for long periods of time. Don’t get me wrong with my previous statement, because good films not always have an original story. The problem here was simply technical. The direction was uninspired, presenting an excessively moving camera that was not always favorable, and shadowy images sometimes intercalated by two or three beautiful countryside landscapes. The uneven pace had a shake in its violent, yet somewhat predictable final moments, but this wasn’t enough to turn “A long and happy life” into a decisive and memorable film.

Gagarin: First in Space (2013)

Directed by: Pavel Parkhomenko
Country: Russia

Movie Review: “Gagarin: First in Space” is the first biopic of Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, the first man to reach the outer space, when in April 12, 1961, his spacecraft Vostok 3KA completed an entire orbit around the Earth. Presented in radiant colored tones that recreate decently the 60’s, this state-funded film doesn’t hide its patriotic exacerbation, reinforcing the Soviet strictness, military determination, and national enthusiasm about the man who would open the frontiers of unexplored space. The story focuses on the period right before the tough tests that Gagarin was subjected along with a competitive group of 19 pilots, until his return from space. However, some flashbacks take us to several episodes of his poor childhood, involving his humble parents and brother, and how he met his wife for the first time during a dance ball. Despite his irreproachable career, his private life didn’t reveal anything particularly remarkable, and even his unwarming relationship with his incredulous father was depicted exactly in the way he always behave when facing a stressful situation: cold and unemotional. The fact that production designer turned director Parkhomenko (who worked in Alexey Balabanov’s films) has left behind the last seven years of Gagarin’s life, including the jet crash that caused his death in 1968, and the speculations about conspiracy involving it, must seem incomplete in the eyes of many. Production values are strong, while the special effects aren’t exuberant but appropriate.

In The Fog (2012)

Directed by: Sergei Loznitsa
Country: Russia / others

Review: Sergei Loznitsa’s sophomore film “In The Fog” presents the same approach of “My Joy”, evincing the same depressive mood, the same desolated scenarios, cold interactions among the characters, and a strong psychological component, but without being so invigorating and opting for a dragging pace that leads to a difficult watching. Set in 1942, it tells the grim story of Sheshenya, an innocent Byelorussian rail worker, who was the only one to be freed by the Germans after being captured along with other three soviet partisans accused of derail a German train. This inexplicable fact made the partisans conclude that Sheshenya was a traitor. One day, without surprise, two partisans arrived to his place and took him to a forest to punish him with death, but along the way the plans were changed. Adapted from a short novel by Vasili Bykov, “In The Fog” presents an intriguing structure, reconstructing these men’s past in order to help us understand what was behind their actions. Even overlong and emotionally cold, its cinematography and non-moralistic story of despair, stick in our head and refuse to abandon us completely, which proves the strength of the tale. But when I think in its lack of pace, weighted delays, and excess of meticulousness, I see some limitations that could be easily avoided by shortening some long static shots and perhaps reduce the same grave silence used on every scene.

White Tiger (2012)

Directed by: Karen Shakhnazarov
Country: Russia

Review: Based on Ilya Boyashov’s fictional novel “Tankman”, “White Tiger” is an eerie tale that mixes war and supernatural to portray the improbable story of one of the best Russian tank drivers of WWII. During an operation against the Germans, this tank driver got burned in 90% of his body when he was hit by a mysterious tank known as White Tiger. Practically given up for dead, he has a miraculous recovery in a few weeks, revealing a strange sixth sense that will help him to accomplish his mission of destroying White Tiger and avenge his own fate. Having lost his memory, he was renamed Naydenov and promptly reattached to military service. As a ghost, only him could see White Tiger, which according to his words was an indestructible tank commanded by dead. After these spooky revelations, the hunt begins, painted in beautiful colors and alluring visuals of destruction and claustrophobia. The film showed nerve in the way that made the absurdity of the story seem naturally serious. The performance by Aleksey Vertkov was convincing, while the music of Richard Wagner enhanced the tense moments. Even using a minimal story and a few details in the plot that were hard to swallow, “White Tiger” spread some freshness with its exquisite taste, hypnotic war scenes, and final mention of an abominable philosophy described by the Reich himself. An absurdly original piece of cinema.

Twilight Portrait (2012)

Directed by: Angelina Nikonova
Country: Russia

Review: Angelina Nikonova’s directorial debut is a bleak portrait of a decadent Russia and also a curious character study. The approach in "Twilight Portrait" is raw, with intense and realistic scenes. It was a shame that some details hampered its chances of being more effective. I think the movie would have caused much more impact without the first scene, which serves as a warning for what will come next, losing the surprise factor. Marina, the main character, was brutally raped. Yet, the fact that she had been working with abused children, seemed too calculated by the screenwriters. Despite of these considerations, Marina’s baffling behavior kept me interested till the end, in a film that didn't spare an amoral Russia, where the lack of professionalism, bureaucracy, coldness and violence, are too evident issues to be ignored.

Fortress Of War (2010)

Directed by: Aleksandr Kott
Country: Russia

Plot: A war drama set during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, in which Russian troops held on to a border stronghold for nine days.

Review: Beautifully shot, “Fortress of War” is based on the real events happened in Brest Fortress, Belarus, before and after the invasion of the German troops in 1941. The peaceful scenario of the beginning soon changes to an authentic human slaughter. The violence is frequently too explicit - gunshots, explosions and dismembered people are everywhere throughout the film. For over two hours we can have an intense but also tiresome experience, testifying a real example of Russian patriotism and resistance. Recommended, for ones who have stomach for heavy content.

Relevant awards: -

Faust (2011)

Directed by: Aleksandr Sokurov

Country: Russia

Plot: A version of the German legend in which a man sells his soul to the devil in exchange of knowledge.

Quick comment: Master direction from Sokurov in this loose and controversial, though captivating, adaptation of Goethe's literary work. Every frame is like a painting made with brush strokes of grotesque and profanity. As in most of his movies, the adopted style and mood are not easy to assimilate at once, whereas its creative approach has something to say in a time where fresh new ideas are very welcomed.

Relevant Awards: Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, Italy.

Elena (2011)

Directed by: Andrei Zvyagintsev

Country: Russia

Plot: Elena and Vladimir are an older couple, they come from different backgrounds. Vladimir is a wealthy man, while Elena comes from a modest milieu and is a docile wife...

Quick comment: A relentlessly cold movie where nothing is given too quick or too slow. The perfect balance was found by Zvyagintsev to get our best attention in this realistic and shocking story. By using interesting subjects and having a fantastic sense of filmmaking (also evident in “the return” and “the banishment”) this is another gem of european modern cinema.

Relevant Awards: Un certain regard jury prize at Cannes Film Festival, France; best film at Ghent Film Festival, Belgium.

Silent Souls (2009)

Realizado por: Aleksei Fedorchenko
País: Rússia

Um homem parte numa viagem de carro com um amigo, levando o corpo da sua mulher com o objectivo de o cremar junto ao rio, numa cidade distante, onde guarda felizes recordações da sua lua-de-mel. Estes homens pertencem à tribo merjan, uma das etnias russas mais antigas, e apenas obedecem a um ritual funerário que é a tradição do seu povo quase extinto. Para eles, o rio é o destino de todos os mortos e a água que este contém é o juiz de cada alma que lá entra. Um filme sobre a morte e sobre uma cultura perdida, nostálgico, cinzento, mas bastante profundo. Vencedor de 4 prémios no Festival de Veneza.

How I Ended This Summer (2010)

Realizado por: Alexei Popogrebsky
País: Russia

Uma boa ideia nem sempre consegue ter a consistência necessária para originar um bom filme. Depois da história começar a interessar, torna-se subitamente uma decepção, na sua parte final. Dois homens trabalham numa estação meteorológica, completamente isolados numa ilha do Árctico. Sergei é um homem duro e veterano, enquanto Pavel é inexperiente. Quando este ultimo recebe via rádio, uma mensagem que dá conta da morte da familia de Sergei, esconde-a do companheiro. Quando resolve dar a noticia, entra em pânico com a reacção de Sergei e parte para uma fuga desenfreada. Visualmente bem conseguido, cai na parte final pelo "vazio" do seu argumento.