Once in Trubchevsk

Welcome to TRUBCHEVSK - a small town not far from Moscow. Anna and Egor are neighbours and having an affair. It is only a matter of time until things are out in the open. Some hard choices have to be made... or maybe not so hard. In the end TRUBCHEVSK is a quiet town where nothing ever happens.

Subtle, atmospheric and true, devoid of politics and criminal drama, which is a typical trend for modern Russian films, ONCE IN TRUBCHEVSK delivers a simple story but with a lot of heart. The setting here is everything. TRUBCHEVSK presents as poor and simple town with a surprisingly prosperous community. The real focus of the film is that community with many episodic characters who are likely to be non professional actors revealing real life stories.

Authenticity is what ONCE IN TRUBCHEVSK is all about. There's a feeling that you are plunged into some kind of alternative universe, the same for a Russian viewer like myself who spent the majority of his life in a big city.

ONCE IN TRUBCHEVSK is only 80 minutes long and while very little is happening story-wise it never feels stretched or boring. With current Russian political infamy it is nice to see a movie about simple people with simple dramas and the quiet current of life that sooner or later amicably resolves the problems of the heart.

The film sets in a small town in Russia near it's western border. As the town is so far from hustle and bustle of main cities you can imagine for it's people anything happening around them is the important topic to bring into their discussion to pass their quite days. But is this the reason of their isolation from rest of the word, the film tries to explore.

The story of affair of two neighbors Anna and Egor unfolds in a very simple way over some period where they go together on a long road journey to spend their time. During this time when they are together they don't seem to do things out of their normal ordinary life but still both seem to enjoy this time and they patiently wait for their next journey.

Director has very thoughtfully created a script where I think he wants his audience neither to go into the details of the affair nor the good and bad side of his characters like the people in any small town normally do because we don't know from the plotline things like how long their affair is going on and also why it is going on because both of them have their own family and they don't seem to have any major issue with their respective spouse. Also when both of them are together we don't see they discuss in much details about their relationship. The only person who is serious about their relationship is Anna while from Egor we don't see much enthusiasm.

The main interesting character in the story who has many shades is Anna. She is a brave, very confident artistic woman, atypical from the other women of the town where she belongs. I think she also knows that Egor is not serious about this relationship but she took her chance. The reason why she chooses Egor (maybe temporarily) over her husband could be because with Egor she gets an opportunity at least for few days to get out of the town where her mind do not belong. The director has also used very cleverly windows of the house where Anna shifts later in the movie to represent mental state of Anna, an emotional feeling of getting trapped.

The roll of other characters in the story are also nicely balanced. What I liked the most in this cinema is it's final scene where the liberation day of the same town from Nazi occupation is very enthusiastically celebrated by it's natives but the question is are they really liberated?

In my conclusion this is a must watch cinema and there is so much needs to be explored by anyone watching it in his own way.

A story loop whose journey is not enriching. Without being a bad film, it is rather insipid, even banal, and it may remind you of the project of an average graduate in film studies, directing option. For a rare time, I would have preferred a less tight assembly; we could afford it since the film is not very long. We have difficulty feeling empathy for the characters, who are rather bland, but we follow them as we would a TV show in order to pass the time. The best aspect of the film is the music that encompasses it. Short, slowly delivered dialogues can still be useful as exercises in understanding the Russian language.