While returning to Leningrad from a visit to his brother, Professor Artyom's car breaks down and he finds assistance at an isolated farmhouse occupied by Alexey, his wife, a Vietnamese laborer, and a stranger who wanders around the farm. When his car is repaired, Artyom leaves, drunk on moonshine, and students Valera and Angelika arrive. After Valera gets drunk, the stranger abducts Angelika.
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Reviews
the audience applauded
As Good As It Gets
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
All the hype around the 'truth' about Soviet Union is appalling. After Russian movie-makers "broke free" from the "totalitarian hell" there is nothing to stop them from making any kind of black fiction story their imagination can possibly produce. The Hollywood may have self-censorship to not put a maniac into police uniform, but it clearly was not the case with Balabanov. His original idea was apparently create a picture as shocking to the public as possible, and he succeeded well.All of you guys who still fight the Cold war in 2013 are like that madman who reads aloud war letters in a room with two corpses.
Gruz 200 is one of the most profound insights into the horror which the Soviet atheist and murderous era has delivered upon the Russian people and many other nations. Balabanov shows this through an every-day human drama which seems to develop in very non-dramatic way. But while you think you're watching a boring movie about Russian daily comings and goings of some boring people, you don't realize you're drawn into a penetrating story, a drama of much greater magnitude and meaning. The film is so thick with emotion, and blunt about the senselessness of life under communism, this great and beastly utopia, that when you are into it you are taking it in as if it were a nail-biting thriller. This is a true horror story. It is based on true events.You will be haunted and may not be able to sleep well after you watch it. Dumb zombie movies will seem like a stupid Hollywood scary feast of fake blood and guts compared to Gruz 200. There is no blood in this movie though, at least not in any gratuitous way.The viewer would appreciate the optimistic ending. I would not call it a "happy ending."Balabanov's genius is in his honesty. One who knows communism, its deceitfulness, its godlessness and the tremendous hatred for normalcy and honesty will appreciate this aspect of the director's approach.I highly recommended this movie. Balabanov is a master story-teller, as one other reviewer appropriately noted - he is "heavy- handed" but his madness has a method. And that method delivers an unforgettable message, so does the cast.I do not think I will be exaggerating, (basing my opinion on this and one more film of his) if I say that Balabanov may be compared to the great dissidents and authors that his nation has born from within their history laden with tyranny, cruelty and tragedy. He is presenting a picture which is so haunting because it is exposing the real face of a hateful and evil regime; therefore his message is optimistic and liberating. Gruz 200 is a masterpiece.
Now I remember why I like attending sneak previews so much. The absence of expectations from the audience. How does a curious movie audience react to the blackest of comedies slash nightmare? When I entered, some 200 people were in the audience. When the movie had ended, some 120 were left. The people who left, did so in the second hour of the movie, after having giggled the first hour. The talent of the filmmaker. I stayed and enjoyed one of the best movie theater experiences ever.The Soviet Union, 1984. That can be displayed even more horrible than you thought. It all starts out kind of cute: a boy with a Russian disco hairdo, a professor in 'atheism', a captain of the Russian army, an innocent girl. But lemonade glasses of vodka pass through these people. And not everyone is so kind. It results in a fly plague...It can't get any worse, but it does. And I kept laughing, although without much joy. I witnessed the people leaving around me. And I wanted to shout: Waiter! More Vodka! More! The best black comedy of the year. I even remembered the name after leaving the sneak preview, which is very rare...
In my opinion, Malenkaya Vera is a better film at showing the decay of the USSR in it's last days. It's also more accessible to the foreign viewer. There was a lot that was lost in translation in Gruz 200, and it requires more knowledge of Soviet history to truly understand the film. That said, the look of the film was very good. The soundtrack is effective too. The disco scene at the beginning was one of my favorites, especially with the guys doing the robot in the background.Balabanov is heavy handed as usual, but then that is part of what I enjoy about his films. He is truly an original filmmaker. He should also be commended for trying to put an end to unwarranted nostalgia for the Soviet Union.