Lesha Shultes, a pickpocket, leads the ordinary life of an average urban creature. The only extraordinary thing about Shultes is that he carries a little notebook with him and notes down everything. This minimalist drama of a 'small man' in a metropolis delivers an existential message with a distinct Russian flavour.
Reviews
So much average
Don't Believe the Hype
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
This picture is OK, but not great, detached, unsentimental, unpsychological and even impersonal, as often these days, mysterious without reason ; Shultes, the main character, is not only solitary and impenetrable, but suffers from amnesia (an easy symbol of the way Russia today forgets itself, I suppose, but making little difference to the picture itself...) ; he lives with his old and sick mother, but they just watch TV together in the evening, not exchanging one single word ; he does a bit of running, a bit of stealing, and he's quite good at picking pockets (maybe the picture tries to be "Bressonian"... but here stealing is not prideful self-assertion, nor anything else... it's just a meaningless way of survival...The only really great part is when we see actress Cecile Piege, in a little film she shot of herself on her portable camera, making a passionate declaration to an unseen (and to everybody else unknown) man, then singing (or miming ?) a punkish song for him ; and I'd like very much to know what the title of this song is, and who sings it in reality...
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