Renko has a razor-sharp wit, is an independent minded and relentless detective with a thousand-yard stare in Cold War Russia where having independent thoughts get citizens killed, even police officers.
The film avoids the usual Russian stereotypes, and succeeds on all levels as a kind of fantastical sort of Russian Noir detective story. The film also has one of the finest scores the late James Horner ever composed.
Underneath Renko's stone facade, the perpetual frown and the stoic gaze there's an empathy, a sympathy for lost souls. In a system designed to suppress the truth he fights for it.
The film avoids the usual Russian stereotypes, and succeeds on all levels as a kind of fantastical sort of Russian Noir detective story. The film also has one of the finest scores the late James Horner ever composed.
Underneath Renko's stone facade, the perpetual frown and the stoic gaze there's an empathy, a sympathy for lost souls. In a system designed to suppress the truth he fights for it.