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Directed by Valery Todorovsky
As the name suggests, this film takes you to the seedier parts of Russia where young people are caught up in a world without options. There are enough images of neglected children, ulcerated arms and dead bodies to justify the investment made by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency of The Russian Federation. It’s also an interesting, even though not entirely unique, story of power and corruption and the risks people are willing to take on the off-chance that they might better their lives. The reality usually being that the dregs usually just drift deeper and disappear.
Denis (Maxim Matveyev), however, is good-looking and intelligent and just might have a chance. He works as a DJ and lives with his artist girlfriend Masha (Ekaterina Vilkova). Financial pressures drive him to look for work in Moscow but this venture is not successful. He yearns to make it big, but doesn’t plan for his accidental involvement in a drug heist gone wrong. That was the brain wave of his mates Slug and Gropher who continue their struggles in the background while he becomes the right hand man of drug baron Werner (Fedor Bondarchuk) and informer for a desperate vodka-swilling policeman, just to cover all his bases. Somehow Werner’s sister Tayka (Eugenai Hirivskaya) gets thrown into the mix as all the buddy bonding goes on.
Evidently 60 Russian people a month are discovering the escape provided by heroin – the permanent escape that is. Films about drugs, money and misadventure are quite common in the West and this film is an interesting comparison. See it at The Russian Resurrection Film Festival, which runs 13-19 November at Cinema Paradiso. Log on to www.lunapalace.com.au for tickets and film information.
Lezly Herbert
