A Gentle Creature

A woman struggles to access her imprisoned husband, to get him a parcel, to check on his wellbeing: not in the 19th century, but modern day Russia - a damning film about corruption and the devastation it leaves, the tragic effects it has on the innocent and the sour taste it leaves behind.

I never read Dostoyevsky's short story that inspired the 2h20 film, so I'm not sure if the written story also reveals a large country where corruption is the dominating rule. If you are the usual movie fan, be prepared for long quite shots, raw characters, sophisticated narrative and humor. The story takes the viewer through a Kafkaesque and labyrinthine sequence of incidents and misfortunes where promises are broken and hope lives faraway. I guess it's all about Putin's Russia but also about Czar's and Stalin's nation. I like the movie but some creative solutions are a bit excessive.

A thought provocative, very engrossing film. Though it is slow & boring at times, it rewards the viewer in the end. Hats off to the director.

Good acting, good screenplay, minimal dialogues. I will cherish this film for many years.

A Not To Be Missed film.

First i gotta commend the cinematography ,, really impressive and montage just transition you into those miserable moments "gentle creature" experience ,, i mean her facial expressions were on point, for an amateur actress, and this is her first lead (big screen) ,, but it is apparent she is professional in "theater" ..

Anyway,, the story is emotional ,, and even though the script was not that strong, the events just keeps on pulling you to engage more and just try to find whether she gets to meet her husband or not.

final thought, recommended , but don't get bored from the first 20 minutes ,,, keep on watching ,.

When I first read the premise of this movie (the returned package) I wasn't sure if this would be a horror movie or not.

What I got is decidedly not a horror movie but it is indeed terrifying in its own way.

An ineffably strange and atmospheric odyssey of one woman through a prison town, meeting vivid character after vivid character, each cartoonish in their own way yet at once, almost too real, like a sort of modern day urban Alice in Wonderland.

Valentina Makovtseva plays this unfortunate wife with a quite, smouldering intensity that makes me sure I would recognise her in anything else I see. Even in her resting face she is hard to forget. The candid, episodic narrative tells a story of modern Russia in the numerous people that make it up; a world composed of those desperately trying to make the best of a system that no one seems to have seen coming and those who are part of the system and where the petty criminals and the law enforcement are alike in brutality and apathy.

Although it is not a horror movie, it is envisioned exactly as one should be: the seductive cinematography, the candid angles, the way it always lingers on action even when the scene is effectively at its close; I hope the director of this does direct a horror one day. No need to write it, just give a good script their treatment.

This movie is sort of like a Russian turnip. Not sweet and definitely unsavoury, but on some level I suspect its good for you. Though it's never aggressive, it never relents, it takes no short cuts yet it never drags. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth that I don't think I'll ever forget.