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Retro-surrealistic snuff rendition of Gulag as a parable
Let me try to brief you of less known to the westerners features of this award-winning movie without spoilers: if you are wondering what kind of people could perpetrate the atrocities in Bucha and other corners of the world starting 1917, you need not look any further, your only challenge will be to not look away, as this is a masterpiece of different kind of snuff, where the gruesome is not graphic and loud but the untold, or rather — expressed via multimedia art.
While the majority of art-house is aimed at niche audience the topic so serious deserves mass audience, here the writers of “Soyuz 7” (space blockbuster based on real events) in collaboration with the editor of such marvels as “Dancer in the Dark” and successful Russian music act Shortparis, who have shot to stardom while keeping their underground roots, to produce an experience seldom found since 1990s: a mass-counterculture blockbuster similar to “Natural Born Killers” or “Naked Lunch”… you name it.
So, they’ve teamed up with Shortparis who are a successful performance act with a versatile history of antiputin protest and a desire to build upon their eye-candy music videos and ready aesthetics one can see in their flicks for “Govorit Moskva” released right before 2022 and up to “HOBOE HOBOE” which set resembles the “crazy credits” of “Volkonogov’s” to make “Polyushko-Pole” the only ubiquitous sound-track of it. This eerie rendition of an ominous folk song dedicated to “Our great combat flag/farewell to drafted boy” sounds prophetic after February 24th of 2022, but is equally subconsciously unnerving as a track for grim ballet performed by young men in red/black “visual-key”-like uniforms as entertainment but resembling a dark ritual. And this ritual does render a vision from hell literally for protagonist, as it serves for viewer as a part of stylish picture of insane totalitarian society where the oppressed population toils under impending doom with everyone potentially a subject to death of unpredictable level of violence.
However, in order to see this, you will have to dive into the depth of contradicting Russian symbols where the visuals taken both from Soviet classics and recent art, are combined with decaying human side of life obvious in the buildings of seemingly recently refurbished former Imperial capital and puppet-like servitude of its citizens.
The first third of 2 hour long movie builds up conditions for protagonist to snap out of this nightmare consuming his soul in progressively horrible sins, and if you are tired of clip-like flicks like “Run Lola, Run” just watch a music video of Avatar “Bloody Angel” paying attention to its lyrics.
Then, the main character turns to seek forgiveness of his (honest at first) wrongdoings while being chased by ex-colleagues. Thus movie has enough plot to entertain the viewer while rendering the most striking episodes of non-fictional book “The GULAG Archipelago” by Noble-prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the manner similar to other dissident writer Vladimir Sorokin. Interestingly, the latter was among first targets of Putin’s repressions, and (similarly to this movie forbidden in Russia along with many others) has grown into writer of dystopian parables opposed to current regime...
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