Razzhimaya kulaki

Russia's official submission to 2022's Oscars is good but could've been better. It's simple, authentic and emotional but also emotionless at the same time. It tackles powerful topics like trauma and toxic family but it lacks a suitable story development. It just drags and drags and feels like it's missing something, perhaps it needs some more depth. Lead performance is excellent.

The most impressive part of this Unclenching the Fists to me is how it simultaneously evokes so many conflicting emotions. I have rarely felt as bad for a fictional character as I did for Ada in this movie, yet the film is not depressing. On the contrary, I mostly found the film to happy and hopeful. The conflux of emotions is most prominently on display in the single sex scene, which might just be my favorite film scene of all time.

A lot of information is left unsaid, expressed only through facial expressions and subtle interactions between characters. Re-watching the movie gave me yet another unforgettable experience, and left me once again blown away by the performances and the director's attention to detail.

This movie is so good, cause it's not following any cliché.

Main heroine does not became suddenly strong and heroic out of nowhere, she stays very vulnerable and shy, the only way she could be with such backstory.

It could be easily spoiled by just making it one more of the modern era movies about heroic girl fighting against demonized evil men.

But this story about Osetian village girl in a man's world don't have any "bad" character.

Even tyrannic father at the end, shown as a human, who is just old, weak and afraid to stay alone, and let his daughter go.

And this is a very important message - sometimes instead of fight people, you can try to understand them.

Not to mention absolutely brilliant acting from non-professional cast.

Not to mention an astonishing camera work that makes 50% magic in all movie.

Many will not get this movie, cause there is nothing here, except kindness, awkwardness and vulnerability.

But, to me, it is more than enough.

My first film from the Republic of Ossetia (within the Russian Federation). The first two-thirds of the film is a slow, seemingly un-impressive build-up for the final third which is truly memorable. Memorable because the film is based on an original script written/conceived by the director. More memorable because the end-sequence is possibly one of the best I have ever seen. It utilizes forgotten facets of cinema projection of earlier decades, as though the film was getting repeatedly stuck in the projector and the film had finally stopped rolling to complete the tale. The film then appears to end with a dark screen. One would assume a negative ending, but it is actually a very positive ending. You need to see the film to appreciate how it all makes sense. Richly deserved the Cannes "Un Certain Regard'' section's best film award. (The section's jury was headed by British director Ms Andrea Arnold, the director of Cannes award winning film "Fish Tank".) The Ossetian director Kira Kovalenko studied under the maestro Russian director Aleksander Sokurov. It is a pity that this film offered by Russia to the Oscar's foreign language category was not even nominated. It merely shows the artistic knowledge of the people or the process that make the Oscar selections, being unable to distinguish any art that is unusual just because they have never encountered it before. Tip of my hat to the young director Kira Kovalenko! Mr Sokurov, you have mentored a promising new director!

With the snow-covered Caucasus Mountains looming above a cold city of concrete and dust, Ada is running out of time. She is as nervous and desperate to leave home as her single father is to keep her locked away with him. There is reason to his madness since he, Ada, and her two brothers recently fled from violence in Chechnya, but he holds on to her way too tight. Local boys revel in loud machines that swirl in the dirt, and there is one among them who pesters her relentlessly to score, but Ada tries to keep her distance from them. Doors tend to open for those whose hearts are in the right place.

Locals are not good actors, but better than professionals. I prefer them to professionals. Local actors have their faults, but their authenticity is unmatched, and they can really make a place come alive more than a thousand A-list actors put together. This goes for directors too. Fortunately for Unclenching the Fists, director Kira Kovalenko is from nearby Ossetia-Alania. Her story is enthralling, cathartic, and insightful even with its depressing nature. I reveled in the local disco with the characters as they danced to the song of their release. You will too.

Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes. Seen at the Toronto international film festival.