Avgust. Vosmogo

More than 10 years have passed since the events of August 2008. I remember well how I was returning to Moscow along the Minsk highway when I heard a radio message with an alarmed intonation: "Georgia has started military operations on the territory of South Ossetia."

I have seen and heard about the film of Janik Fayziyev more than once. My expectations almost matched what I saw on the screen, barely holding back tears in particularly emotional scenes. The young director did a decent job, successfully embodying bold and creative ideas. One of them is a story about a boy who dreamed of robots-as an inseparable line from the general plot, which in fact became the center in the abyss of the main events. It is worth noting that the young actor did not play, but lived his role even in those silent moments when he, cowering under the table, looked through his mother's messages on the phone.

Separately, I would like to say thank you to Janik for the theme of maternal love, vividly reflected in the picture. The film left mixed touching feelings, reminding again of eternal values...

P.S. When the first time the film was turned on in the company of friends, they did not perceive the first minutes with animation and with exclamations like "what nonsense", "children's cinema", "is this the whole movie going to be like this?". As a result, the viewing was stopped. And for some reason I was offended that the picture is judged by the first minutes. But it is not for nothing that they say that if you are waiting for something good, it will definitely come to you. And so it happened (and the very next day). Someone suggested that we watch the movie after all. But the most interesting thing is that as you watch it, everyone who was nearby gathered at the screen. And outside, in the light of Sunday morning, spring was waking up, and the sky, our common and peaceful, blinded everything around with its bright, vast blue...

Movie is about the 2008 August War or Russo-Georgian War. The war action sequence were okay but the story sequences towards the end felt very draggy and long winded. Just get to the story already! Jeez.

I am not here to judge or criticize, nobody paying me for that. I am here just to say that this movie is about a real life. This movie captures in itself more than I could ever expect from a Russian movie. Its about war, its about care, its about love.

Nothing is perfect in this world including this movie. The script could be better, the cast could be better, the story could be better, the actor performance could be better, BUT. One...... big...... BUT!

The inner fight in a heart of the soldier between responsibilities, duties and care for girl he doesn't know ; the sacrifice of one girl facing the demon of war in name of life ; the love in the eyes of the soldier; This cannon be any better!

Please watch it!

Frankly: current state of Russian cinema seems fairly low, you have to be real "patriot" to find any jokes in todays' Russian comedies or any fun in action movies (IMHO).

The bigger was surprise from "August 8th" - it got my 8/10 just for being able to watch it till closing credits and don't die from boredom. Bravo! I would even suppose that this movie would be suitable for international auditory, at least it's much more entertaining than any direct-to-video Seagal/VanDamme/Lundgren "product".

OK, Russian actors and script-writers still need to strive to reach any level of realism in dialogs which are are too long and non-convincing here and there, scene of "orgasm in elevator" bravely stolen from Harry & Sally (well, actually it's tribute, heroine has it on DVD), but mechanical, F/X and battle parts of the movie are almost perfect.

Frankly, I cannot even recall any recent movie where realism of the field battle was close enough to August 8th. "Battle Los Angeles" is probably being closest. Director is definitely big fan of hardware, almost 50 consecutive seconds of the movie we can see how a bus is being torn in pieces, including demonstration of all it's mechanical "intestines", really rare episode of this kind. For soldiers CRAWLING (not running) in houses, less than heroic (i.e. real world) deaths on both conflicting sides - for all this my big thanks to director and his military consultants.

Last but not least is that you can mark battle scenes as "based on real events" - unfortunately this sign today is often attached to movies with almost no ties to reality. Here, on the contrary, almost all battle episodes of the movie are based on actual events, including "big ambush" on one of convoys, "live shield" by tank without ammo and many others.

Watching those episodes is highly recommended even if you get a copy of this movie without dubbing, consider it "Black Hawk Down" in miniature.

Don't be fooled by many movie posters featuring giant robots into believing the film is about giants, or giant robots. It's not. Well, partly, I guess.

Tyoma is a young boy who likes playing video games. He often lives in a fantasy world envisioning giants and robots. The film itself is realistic, though, and not fantasy or about super-heroes. Kseniya is a single mother, but still has contact with Tyoma's father, Zaur. Wanting to take a vacation with her new boyfriend, Yegor, Kseniya agrees when Zaur asks for Tyoma to come live with him for a while in the village of Sidamonta in South Ossetia.

Shortly after Tyoma arrives in Sidamonta, news breaks of a war and Sidamonta becoming a conflict zone, and Kseniya desperately wants Tyoma sent back home. When Zaur refuses, she decides to journey to Sidamonta herself. The bus trip to Tskhinvali was incredible! I don't want to ruin the movie if you haven't seen it, so I won't go into detail, but it was stunning.

The rest of the movie sees Kseniya trying to get to her son, while war comes closer to home. 'August Eighth' is an incredible film with amazing visuals, beautiful cinematography, and jaw-dropping action sequences. It is fast-paced and thrilling and there literally never is a dull moment. Svetlana Ivanova did a great job as Kseniya.

The final act might not be believable, but hell, it certainly was entertaining! 'August Eighth' is well worth seeing, if you don't mind subtitles. This is definitely among my favourite Russian films.