User reviews

This movie wins, in my opinion, with its outstanding acting (from another world - almost literally) and with the moral of the story.

So many emotions. It was captivating.

I dont want say anything else. But I have to because this review has to be at least 600 letters long.

So I'll add that giving a 10 to a movie is outstanding from my part. Go figure, there may always be a better film somewhere, but I won't wait for it to give 10 stars. It was the right movie at the right time. What else. It's gracefully graphic if that makes any sense.

Enjoy, this one is worth making time for, even for the busiest

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I crave for Russian movies, but beware, I speak of real films, not the CGI war propaganda garbage stuff as you may find from time to time. I remember for instance LEVIATHAN, THE MAJOR, FACTORY and a handful of others. Films which are the accurate reflect of the Russian society, now or at Stalin's period. Such as this one, where it is fully explained that poor innocent people were brutalized, tortured by men who knew those poor people were innocent; the torturers knew, but still did it because they received the order from Stalin to torture his own people so that no one trusts no one in order to avoid any plot against him. This kind of topic may be difficult to understand from the western countries eyes, especially now, in 2023 and the war in Ukraine...This is a terrific movie, gloomy, depressing, unbearable in some sequences, not a comedy for sure. A piece of jewel for anyone interested in this per WW2 Stalin period. I am sure there are batches of those films that have not reached France. The story of a torturer who suddenly wished to redeem himself, his soul, his conscience. Awesome.

Let me try to brief you of less known to the westerners features of this award-winning movie without spoilers: if you are wondering what kind of people could perpetrate the atrocities in Bucha and other corners of the world starting 1917, you need not look any further, your only challenge will be to not look away, as this is a masterpiece of different kind of snuff, where the gruesome is not graphic and loud but the untold, or rather - expressed via multimedia art.

While the majority of art-house is aimed at niche audience the topic so serious deserves mass audience, here the writers of "Soyuz 7" (space blockbuster based on real events) in collaboration with the editor of such marvels as "Dancer in the Dark" and successful Russian music act Shortparis, who have shot to stardom while keeping their underground roots, to produce an experience seldom found since 1990s: a mass-counterculture blockbuster similar to "Natural Born Killers" or "Naked Lunch"... you name it.

So, they've teamed up with Shortparis who are a successful performance act with a versatile history of antiputin protest and a desire to build upon their eye-candy music videos and ready aesthetics one can see in their flicks for "Govorit Moskva" released right before 2022 and up to "HOBOE HOBOE" which set resembles the "crazy credits" of "Volkonogov's" to make "Polyushko-Pole" the only ubiquitous sound-track of it. This eerie rendition of an ominous folk song dedicated to "Our great combat flag/farewell to drafted boy" sounds prophetic after February 24th of 2022, but is equally subconsciously unnerving as a track for grim ballet performed by young men in red/black "visual-key"-like uniforms as entertainment but resembling a dark ritual. And this ritual does render a vision from hell literally for protagonist, as it serves for viewer as a part of stylish picture of insane totalitarian society where the oppressed population toils under impending doom with everyone potentially a subject to death of unpredictable level of violence.

However, in order to see this, you will have to dive into the depth of contradicting Russian symbols where the visuals taken both from Soviet classics and recent art, are combined with decaying human side of life obvious in the buildings of seemingly recently refurbished former Imperial capital and puppet-like servitude of its citizens.

The first third of 2 hour long movie builds up conditions for protagonist to snap out of this nightmare consuming his soul in progressively horrible sins, and if you are tired of clip-like flicks like "Run Lola, Run" just watch a music video of Avatar "Bloody Angel" paying attention to its lyrics.

Then, the main character turns to seek forgiveness of his (honest at first) wrongdoings while being chased by ex-colleagues. Thus movie has enough plot to entertain the viewer while rendering the most striking episodes of non-fictional book "The GULAG Archipelago" by Noble-prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the manner similar to other dissident writer Vladimir Sorokin. Interestingly, the latter was among first targets of Putin's repressions, and (similarly to this movie forbidden in Russia along with many others) has grown into writer of dystopian parables opposed to current regime...

The poetics of this hard to watch movie provides some historical explanation for an outsider like myself to what is happening in Ukraine and Russia right now and of what has happenned in Russia in other periods of history. The movie is more theatrical than historical, but it is strange how all the dystopical surrealism used in it can be at the same time the plausible exact truthful depiction of events. In tyranny you never know. It is desolating how much of nowadays russia is described there. The russian and human condition seems to be this eternal cycle of abuse and brainwashing generation after generation perpretated to perpetuate power and the only escape is unlikely and unreachable forgiveness. The film is full of unforgetable scenes like the pietà, the dance, the kid with the bonfire, the mass grave revelation, the execution lesson and so on. The sound track has pratically only one mesmerizing theme. Acting is superb. A must watch.