Closeness

First off there was no reason at all to include video footage of real people being savagely killed Except to bring the film to the headlines everywhere in the hope people will watch it

The rather long scene added absolutely nothing to the somewhat boring teenage angst movie

Not a film to be recommended lightly and probably avoided to deter the director from thinking this is what normal people like watching regardless what he saw in his youth

This movie is amazing and thought provoking, though difficult to watch at times. But no more difficult to watch than real life, real life of people trapped in wars they didn't create, women trapped in family roles decided for them, real life of small communities divided by identity wars where there is disregard and cruelty for the other just because they are part of another "tribe". There is a real footage of gruesome violence by Chechen militants that brought a lot of critique and controversy. The fact that people complain about this only shows their privilege: they have the power to complain about seeing that in the safety of their environment, on a tv screen. Real people who grew up witnessing and living through that don't have any power to complain about it.

Just a heads up for anyone who is thinking to watch this movie. There is a really gruesome documentary scene of killing prisoners of war. If you don't want to see agonising death of real people, which does not add much to a plot of the movie, just move on. To the director, here is an idea to you: next time add funky town videotape in your film (please don't)

A really interesting debut from Balagov that earned him the favour of critics at the Cannes film festival in 2017.

This movie represents a very deep dive in the patriarchal culture, permeating Russia and North Caucasus in general, how the women struggle with the lack of ability to choose their own path, the way they are treated by their parents and everyone around them. At the same time, it is also a dive into the idea of toxic mother's love, that gets overbearing and, at times quite literally, to the point of choking the children.

Also, about the violence, which some of the previous rewires have deemed unnecessary - unfortunately, it was necessary, as it drives the plot and the ethnic conflict between the native ethnicities of North Caucasus and everyone else. It is also an important contextual detail to understanding why the family feels alienated.

Boring from the beginning to the end.

Although it was supposed to be about the kidnapping of a couple, the kidnapping itself takes back seat to all kinds of mostly unrelated stuff.

The movie is painful to watch due to the extremely slow pace.

Scenes of extreme violence shown unexpectedly - before I even had time to wind it fast forward.

Most of the characters are more than abnormal, I would say deviants.

The soundtrack is horrible, my wife who is native russian speaker was not able to understand more than 20-30% of what was being said, so she had to rely on the English subtitles.

Conclusion: cinematography at its worst.