The Slavic film industry, simply put, is in shambles. Although a re-emergence is beginning to take place, it’ll be a long time before it’s stable. The following movies were made either in Ukraine or Russia and by Ukes or Ruskies, though their themes and language are primarily Russian.
9th Company
Great movie. Interesting to see a movie about the Russians in Afghanistan. About a platoon that needs to guard a mountain pass from the enemy lest they take it and interrupt the supply lines during the Afghanistan war. Pretty typical war movie, complete with explosions, gun fire, and sex (with a woman of course). One of my favourite scenes is when the man goes into the village and doesn’t shoot a boy, but when he turns his back the boy shoots him. Learned that if you go into an Afghan village you will be treated like a guest, until you leave, and then they will shoot you.
Prisoner of the Mountains
Very good movie about two soldiers taken hostage in the mountains of some small town during a war between those people and Russia. Moderate length but an enjoyable pace. Enjoyed the story. Enjoyed the interaction between the surviving hostage and the little girl. Mostly handheld camera work, probably because so many of the scenes were shot on hilly ground or required movement around objects.
12
Russian version of Twelve Angry Men. Great cinematography and great story. Shows 12 jurors slowly go from being convinced that the accused is guilty to finding him innocent. The Wowed by the fact that majority of the movie took place in one location, a school gymnasium. Great way of weaving a story from each character into the overarching plot: is the boy guilty or not? They all justify their decision for flipping sides. One scene that stands out to me is when the Hungarian boy on trial is in his jail cell practicing his fighting techniques: by doing some sort of tap dancing routine. Hungarian coperia???
Taras Bulba
Excellent version of Nicolai Gogol’s short story and not a remake of Hollywood’s 1962 version with Yul Brenner. The production was set entirely in Ukraine, complete with sets built on the Zaporizhan Sich, the island where the Kozaks made their base. Couldn’t help but notice they were speaking a lot of Russian and claimed to be fighting for the Russian motherland when I’m pretty sure Gogol was writing about Ukrainians. But the movie was well written and the battle sequences were great to watch, though I will fully disclose my bias for action scenes that follow vodka swigging. The Kozak attack plans, however, made you wonder about their intelligence at times. Glad I wasn’t around to fight back then. I hope this was a product of cinematic embellishment. As a side note, the movie has an American title of The Conqueror, to make it more… uh, I dunno, I thought Taras Bulba was a pretty good name.
Man with a Movie Camera
An oldie but a goodie by Dziga Vertov. There are a few versions out there now, but the one I saw was restored with a soundtrack done by The Cinematic Orchestra. Clocking in at just over an hour, I thought this was a great film, especially with the new soundtrack. If anyone is considering making a documentary, this film is one to learn from. Interesting how The Cinematic Orchestra sometimes matched the music to the images, but most times let the images speak for themselves. The movie seems a little rough at times since jump cuts were used and a lot of the subjects actually look at the camera. And since this film shows “life as it is”, no life would be complete without a child birth scene. It doesn’t last long, I promise.
The Cuckoo (Кукушка)
I found this movie listed as one of the films travellers should watch before going abroad. Well, it wasn’t what I thought it was. The story is about two soldiers and a country girl whose lives come together in a place called Lappland which is somewhere in the northern parts of Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland. To begin, a Finnish soldier, Veiko, who has been marked as a traitor and has to wear a German Nazi uniform while perched atop a hill, a suicide mission called “the cuckoo”. He manages to get free and wander into the countryside. There he comes across Anni who is taking care of a Russian soldier, Ivan. The story’s strong point is that the soldiers and the country lady all speak different languages and thus can’t understand each other. The movie frustrated me because it seemed to not let the trio ever figure out sign-language and simple gestures instead of yakking on about their problems. I guess being a traveller it bothered me that they couldn’t figure that out. In any event, the story itself wasn’t all that interesting but the delivery was.
Nightwatch
The first time I saw this film I couldn’t help but be enamoured by it. Although the story is kind of bizarre and, if you try to read the books after seeing this movie, you’ll be confused. It has something to do with two sets of guardians of Earth: those from the Light Watch and those from the Day Watch. One set are vampires, the other werewolves. Convenient. You might even think you’ve heard of this story before, y’know, something like Underworld. Similar, but not quite. For me, the English subtitles stood out the most as they flowed with the images on screen in a completely remarkable and unobtrusive way.
Brother
Kind of a funny movie about this guy, Danila, who goes to see his older brother who is messed up in a bunch of gang shit. Turns out his brother got in a little deep and Danila has to help out. The movie was a light-hearted look at becoming a gangster, complete with Danila always looking for Cds by the band Nautilus Pompilius, I appreciate that, a gangster with some depth! Another humourous aspect of the movie was the idea that the gangsters didn’t really know what they were doing, particularly when Danila walks in and finds his brother tied up, or when the real bad guys break into the apartment.