Closeness

A really interesting debut from Balagov that earned him the favour of critics at the Cannes film festival in 2017.

This movie represents a very deep dive in the patriarchal culture, permeating Russia and North Caucasus in general, how the women struggle with the lack of ability to choose their own path, the way they are treated by their parents and everyone around them. At the same time, it is also a dive into the idea of toxic mother's love, that gets overbearing and, at times quite literally, to the point of choking the children.

Also, about the violence, which some of the previous rewires have deemed unnecessary - unfortunately, it was necessary, as it drives the plot and the ethnic conflict between the native ethnicities of North Caucasus and everyone else. It is also an important contextual detail to understanding why the family feels alienated.

This movie is amazing and thought provoking, though difficult to watch at times. But no more difficult to watch than real life, real life of people trapped in wars they didn't create, women trapped in family roles decided for them, real life of small communities divided by identity wars where there is disregard and cruelty for the other just because they are part of another "tribe". There is a real footage of gruesome violence by Chechen militants that brought a lot of critique and controversy. The fact that people complain about this only shows their privilege: they have the power to complain about seeing that in the safety of their environment, on a tv screen. Real people who grew up witnessing and living through that don't have any power to complain about it.

Focusing on a teenage daughter in a Jewish family whose brother is kidnapped and held for ransom. The inequality and desire to fit into a prejudiced culture, the pain of growing up and being treated like a child. Contains a piece of video that emphasises what could happen to hostages but is extremely sickening and gratuitous and could spoil the film for some.

"Closeness" is a chamber drama by Kantemir Balagov, a new generation Russian director and student Aleksandr Sokurov. One must have great courage to show age-old problems from the life of the mountain peoples of Kabardino-Balkaria at the end of the last century. What does it mean to be a beautiful proud Jewish girl in a city where Caucasian traditions and customs have developed over centuries? And somewhere nearby, maybe the Chechen war is already going on ...

Just a heads up for anyone who is thinking to watch this movie. There is a really gruesome documentary scene of killing prisoners of war. If you don't want to see agonising death of real people, which does not add much to a plot of the movie, just move on. To the director, here is an idea to you: next time add funky town videotape in your film (please don't)