(Minor spoilers!) The film starts off interestingly enough: some accident seems to have happened at the Tchernobyl nuclear power plant. We watch a young man trying to find out what happened, then following the car with the party officials on foot for miles. He sneaks his way into a meeting where he learns about the terrible accident. He eventually gets caught and is forced to accompany the leading party official to the site of the accident at reactor 4 to see for themselves. While their car is approaching the reactor, the radiation meter is going crazy. They realize that this is indeed a nuclear core meltdown and our hero desperately runs away as fast as he can. A few kilometers from the nuclear plant he meets another party official who tells him about the strange fascination the gaping hole of the exploded reactor had on him. He obviously received a lethal dose of radioactivity and soon starts to vomit. Our hero runs away from him.
So much for the beginning of the film, and a very promising and intriguing one at that. The shaky grainy look and the bleached colors are similar to film footage from the late 80ies. Costumes and people seem sufficiently authentic, everything and everybody acts a little alien and strange but interesting and promising. This could well have been filmed shortly after the catastrophe, maybe even as a means to remedy the Communist party and to play down the horrible mistakes that occurred. Or it could turn into a gritty survival thriller, or provide deep insight into what really happened in Tchernobyl, and how people try to deal with all that.
None of the above is the case in this film. The only visible aspect is a general sense of confusion and the overwhelming lethargy of all the people who see Tchernobyl burning, but somehow just don't seem to care. While most people just don't know better, our hero and a few others are aware of the nuclear danger, and yet they only make half-hearted attempts at getting away. The first reason that keeps our hero from fleeing is a broken heel on his girl's shoe so that they miss a train, then suddenly they find themselves shopping for new shoes, then recovering her passport from a wedding ceremony of our hero's best buddy, then playing music in a band he used to play with. Finally they get drunk and they end up...doing anything but fleeing.
I have watched my share of Russian films, and many of them are quite slow, melancholic and somehow detached from reality. Most of them excel in visual style and contain intelligent social commentary. I don't mind the slowness and mysteriousness. I usually enjoy it, but not this time.
While the film was interesting enough to keep me watching till the end, it was also ridiculous, boring and ultimately pointless. This film could have been so much better with only a few tweaks here and there, but the shallow characters and the unfocused plot kept it from going anywhere. All that remains for me is a sense of despair and confusion. I could not understand the behavior of the characters, therefore I couldn't relate to any of them. The film left me with a huge frown on my face and and a huge amount of disbelief and anger about the lost potential (and my wasted time!).
I am sorry, but I cannot recommend this film to anybody except maybe Russian film enthusiasts.
So much for the beginning of the film, and a very promising and intriguing one at that. The shaky grainy look and the bleached colors are similar to film footage from the late 80ies. Costumes and people seem sufficiently authentic, everything and everybody acts a little alien and strange but interesting and promising. This could well have been filmed shortly after the catastrophe, maybe even as a means to remedy the Communist party and to play down the horrible mistakes that occurred. Or it could turn into a gritty survival thriller, or provide deep insight into what really happened in Tchernobyl, and how people try to deal with all that.
None of the above is the case in this film. The only visible aspect is a general sense of confusion and the overwhelming lethargy of all the people who see Tchernobyl burning, but somehow just don't seem to care. While most people just don't know better, our hero and a few others are aware of the nuclear danger, and yet they only make half-hearted attempts at getting away. The first reason that keeps our hero from fleeing is a broken heel on his girl's shoe so that they miss a train, then suddenly they find themselves shopping for new shoes, then recovering her passport from a wedding ceremony of our hero's best buddy, then playing music in a band he used to play with. Finally they get drunk and they end up...doing anything but fleeing.
I have watched my share of Russian films, and many of them are quite slow, melancholic and somehow detached from reality. Most of them excel in visual style and contain intelligent social commentary. I don't mind the slowness and mysteriousness. I usually enjoy it, but not this time.
While the film was interesting enough to keep me watching till the end, it was also ridiculous, boring and ultimately pointless. This film could have been so much better with only a few tweaks here and there, but the shallow characters and the unfocused plot kept it from going anywhere. All that remains for me is a sense of despair and confusion. I could not understand the behavior of the characters, therefore I couldn't relate to any of them. The film left me with a huge frown on my face and and a huge amount of disbelief and anger about the lost potential (and my wasted time!).
I am sorry, but I cannot recommend this film to anybody except maybe Russian film enthusiasts.
