Kompromat: El Expediente Ruso

Jerome Salle seems to be specialized in adventure thrillers: LARGO WINCH 1 and 2, ZULU, only THE ODYSSEY was not a thriller. But this movie definitely is. And the Russian element in this film released just during the war in Ukraine sounds very strange, what a coincidence. Well this is a classical international thriller with no great surprise, except an excellent directing and acting, but where nothing is done to attract tourists to visit Russia and its tolerance, his friendly behavior towards foreigners; I mean the authorities, not the common folk. Gilles Lelouche is awesome, as usual. A bit long, though and I repeat, unfortunately predictable.

This is the kind of movie that everyone living in civilised and comfortable prosperous calm world must see. Everyone just living his own life, enjoying moments with friends and family. But if you live in Russia, it is like if Alice on the other side of the mirror. As soon as in nowadays Russia, you will easily learn that the rule of law doesn't exist. That anyone with even smallest grasp of power uses it to his own benefit. That human life is worthless - own citizens, and foreigners - even less. That there are no logical explanation nor motives for prosecuting or jailing an innocent man. Everything runs on an almost medieval barbaric logic. All that is Russia nowadays.

A tale of fateful mysterious encounters. A promoter of culture a work horse is very well portrayed by Gilles. Something that's frequently remarkable about European cinema is quietness that builds up anxiousness. Kompromat got that distracting silence to which the thrills gets bombarded. A beautiful love story that's ill-fated yet pure and childish. Joanna Kulig was perfect in portraying the woman lost between worlds. Rest of the cast put up sincere performances too. Cinematography is excellent adapting to the mood of each moment. Kompromat is a simple story that's told right. Worth the time spent.

"It's too long", someone wrote. Well, I disagree. First of all, French directors don't generally hew to the mad pacing American filmgoers are used to. This is quite obvious - you have to go into the theater with a different notion of what an action film should look like.

The film is extremely tight all the way through. Extraordinary attention to detail, and the cinematography is outstanding. Just beautiful. Yes, the plot is somewhat convoluted - but it's based on an incredible true story. It's also timely in that it informs the audience of the true terror people are living in, in the totalitarian state of Russia. G-d knows how many people are wrongfully imprisoned. This is the story of a man who, incredibly, was able to escape the clutches of the Russian state. It's worth watching for that reason alone.

I am personally a self-avowed Russia watcher and have been since the 70s so anything to do with Russia especially society and the way in which it has evolved in some ways and not in others is of utmost interest to me

So this one here was always going to be of great interest. It basically shows institutions functioning the way they were under the Czars of old times (The Cheka begat the NKVD which begat The KGB which begat the current FSB) the modus operandi has not really shifted much ...

It also shows on the other hand the spinelessness of the French diplomatic corps in this case but admittedly could be cut and pasted to almost any diplomatic corps anywhere in the world at any time.

I was fortunate enough to catch the original account of the real hero of this piece the Alliance Française Director to whom this story really happened on radio. Two of the more dramatic events in the film I do not recall happened in real life or the "help" but then again the filmmakers here had to have a punchy story and they certainly do. So they added grittier elements.

The drummed-up charges and the Kompromat (cool terrifying word) were described pretty much as were. Insofar as I know the man to whom this happened still does not know exactly to this day who was responsible but it is pretty much give or take what is recounted here .

As we said before this could be Czarist Russia and or any other fine work Georgian Stalin produced in his finest hour.

So here they got the storyline spot-on and added dramatic events they got the dialogue really good in French and Russian they used actors who could possibly be seen as Russians and many of them actually were Russians.

As regards the acting the main protagonist Gilles Lellouche is fairly good here but personally I have seen him mostly in comedy and he has a pi..-taker face which doesn't really suit drama you expect him to say something inappropriate at any time and when it comes to crying scenes as someone else has pointed out he doesn't pass muster. See him in Los infieles (2012)

The Polish actress here Joanna Kulig is thoroughly excellent maybe a tad too torrid for the role and she does the misery bit to a tee

The main FSB baddie of the peace Michael Gor a true muscovite actor is also really excellent here good sense of menace

All in all when I realised it was the tale of the story I'd heard on the radio only a few months ago maybe even a few weeks I thought oh no they are going to make a mess of this; and then I realized they hadn't this is really really gripping...

The use of streets and locales is excellent too you really get a sense of Siberia I do not know exactly where it was filmed I see from the credits many Lithuanian names and maybe this indicates some of it might have been filmed in Lithuania but in the credits it also mentions Russia so I do not quite understand how they could've got the green light to film this in Russia but maybe when I find out more I will come back and correct if I got the wrong end of the stick.

Highly recommended for any Russia-watcher any person interested in the way in which Russian society is moving forward or not also a great indictment of the diplomatic corps in this case the French but as mentioned before probably would be the same with many other countries.