Svadba

This is truly an extraordinary film. Not at all what I expected and better than any representation that Hollywood has ground out - "Father of the Bride" through to Robert Altman's cynical view in "A Wedding".

I found the whole film mesmerising. The heroine is incredibly beautiful and one can believe that she is a top model. Her hero is wonderfully ordinary, as are all the various characters in this story. The plot unfolds in a way that reminds me of "The Fireman's Ball" (Milos Forman). Maybe it is the way it is in Eastern Europe? Whatever, the viewer feels that they are there, part of the wedding party. I once saw a play called "The Tinker's Wedding", which attempted to capture the atmosphere of a gypsy party, and failed (my view). Watching this production, I am more than ever convinced that it failed. I am prepared to go out on a limb & say that this is one of the most memorable films I have ever seen. It deserves an Oscar. I have been trying to get a DVD and have been offered a copy, in Russian only, from a distributor in Helsinki. If any IMDb reader knows where to locate a copy (with English subtitles). please let me know.

Pavel Lungin's "Svadba" ("The Wedding" in English) is mainly about a wedding, but also shows a contrast between the different kinds of worlds in Russia. Tanya, having worked as a model in Moscow, returns to her economically depressed hometown and decides to marry a friend from school. However, a series of issues arise as they get ready for the wedding.

Although we see the wedding and all its Russian traditions, the movie also looks at issues of corruption and the general hopelessness in this mining town. The opening scene (where the glamorous Tanya is on a bus with a bunch of gruff people) makes the contrast very clear. And then there's a bunch of stuff that we learn about the characters over the course of the movie.

I recommend it.

As a North American who spent three months in Russia in 1995, all I can say is that this movie is a true reflection of what I experienced while I was there. The atmosphere of the film is true to life. If ones wants to get the feeling of a Russian party, this is it. Even though people don't have much to live on, they are ready to chip in and to share everything they have. This is not a comedy, this is a social study on life in Russia in 2000, but it is enjoyable.

First of all, through the entire movie I felt like I have already seen this movie in some sense. After I have finished watching it, I realized it - Lars Von Trier, Celebration. And it was not the script, it was that "documentary" style that made me watch the movie without uttering a single word. "Marriage" puts you in the middle, not only you watch it but you live it with the characters.

I have lived in the largest coal-mining region in Ukraine for a long time. 95% of the situation in the movie is true.

I think that the casting was excellent, militia major is more than believable, Marat Basharov is very sincere, Andrei Panin is a natural "russian soul".

I totally recommend this movie to everybody !

This amazing comedy mocks all film rules, giving you hardly any opportunity to predict what comes next. This wedding is a wodka-loaden, Russian, chaotic party with a bride worth alone to watch the film for, amazing scenes (like in the orphanage), with extreme characters who never become unreal. It's very warm, very funny, sometimes even scary although nothing really extreme happens. Weird things happen, though. The movie starts with Tanya, a supermodel, returning to her home village from Moscow, looking for a shy mineworker she was in love with when she was 14, and making him a proposal: flip a coin, heads is marrying, tails is not marrying. Later on, you'll understand why. You'll love this film if you can enjoy movies that are not by-the-book.