gynter

A story of Estonian high school students who volunteer to defend their country from the Bolshevik invasion in 1918. The only reason to give this film 7 stars is the Estonian film industry context. For Estonia, this film is truly great. Not only it covers previously poorly presented (in the visual art) part of this country's history, it also is very well made camera work wise and the action scenes are done properly. But the director perhaps could have swapped some of the pathetic patriotism (obviously borrowed from the book the film is based on) for real-life attitude. I'll never believe that 17-year-old boys will be that desperately willing to sacrifice their lives and virtually act as if they long for the Red Army bullets. Natural human fear of death is what makes any war scene so much more realistic.

This sci-fi movie will neither impress you with special effects (they are of the 1960s Hollywood science fiction film level) nor will you find stunning scenery or outstanding dramatic acting. It is the plot, the story that makes this film absolutely brilliant. Picture this: two Soviet citizens, a middle-aged engineer and a young musician are magically transferred onto another planet. The new surroundings do have weird and advanced technical gadgets, but the whole society model is totally barbarian and autocratic. The two heroes quickly adopt the new system and with help of their survival practices they were used at in the Soviet Union they try to make their way back home. While the movie went out already during the Gorbatchov glasnost period, it is still amazing the film made it through the censorship regulations. P.S. I bet it will lose half of it's charm when translated into English.

"Anazapta" is one of those movies about the medieval times which does not have any characters boasting a bright, ultra-white-teeth Hollywood smile. The whole so to say "medievalness" is shown very naturally, i.e. people are dirty, rude, there's violence and brief nudity, etc. And this is great. This is the only thing that provides the movies with above the average rating IMHO. The story is twisted just perfectly for ending-guessers to figure out the grand finale some 20 to 15 minutes before time, but the very ending scene has left me wondering. Anyway, in my TV-program the film was described as a historical thriller and thriller it was indeed.