Zimniy put

"Winter Journey" by Sergey Taramaev and Lyubov Lvova is the only drama on this list on an extremely rare topic for Russian LGBT cinema. A film about the intricate relations of a musician and a bully against the background of the endless proud landscapes of winter Moscow. I would also like to say about the outstanding work of the operator of this film - Mikhail Krichman.

The movie is about a truly turbulent and very short lived (two day) relationship between Eric (a wanna-be opera singer, a drinking gay guy in a Russian nameless, backwater town) and Lyosha (a roguish petty homeless criminal in the same city who has little chance to find work in the town industry to soon to die of lung cancer or of skin cancer) who meet through a chain of circumstances and have a truly wonderful chemistry together. The latter is mostly thanks to Pyotr Tkachuk, a Russian actor I have never paid attention to in any episodic roles before, but who reminded me of a young David Bowie. It would be probably in three sentences what the movie is about, but better get it where you can and enjoy a tale of wordless attraction and excellent performances (and no happy end). The movie indeed makes you rewind a few scenes and hold your breathe. It took 3 years for the movie to be available for limited release in/out Russia. I hope you don't miss this gem among countless carbon-copy series about criminals, commissars and early 90s Russian mafia. Trule film festival material and I read it got some recognition but never among ordinary viewers, unfortunately.

Truly brilliant movie. I wish i could go back in time - when i didn't saw it yet- to feel again, the pleasant first time feelings of ''Zimniy put'' The play of Evgeniy Tkachuk is delightfully believable- so natural and professional diving in the role, that you actually believe he IS this character in real life.

Brave work of ''Zimniy put'' producers - considering all homophobic situation now days in Russia. Hope the producers - Lubov Lvova and Sergey Taramaevin in future will continue work in this field, they have great pottencial.

This is kind of movie that dives in you really deep, and day after day it takes you all, and than - you can't stop thinking about. Only now - 1 month after watching it- I truly get all the story line.