Ya khotela uvidet angelov

As Andy Hurwitz said in the previous review, this is a hard film to describe, to categorise. Yet it has haunted my memory for well over 20 years now. No other film has had the impact on me that 'I Wanted to See Angels' has.

It is an intelligent film. An honest film. It does not glorify, objectify or glamourise anybody. Or anything. It reflects life. Its harshness. Its indecision. Its consequences. Its cruelty. Its pain. It resolutely refuses to bow down to cinematic convention. It is all the more powerful for doing so.

And as Andy also said, the soundtrack is to die for.

This is a difficult film to describe. On the face of it, a story of a provincial thug, hired by a loan shark to retrieve money owed by a defaulter in Moscow. Told to kill the man if he does not pay, he makes the mistake of giving him time to pay, with a tragic result. Meantime, he has formed a relationship, of sorts, with a 16 year old homeless girl who discards him when his usefulness is over. A grim story played out against the backdrop of Moscow's underclasses.

What makes the film interesting is the way the director is able to make you care about generally un-sympathetic characters; the surreal timeline and environment; and the staggeringly good soundtrack by Mongol Shuudan.

I didn't really know what to expect, I just knew I wanted to watch a movie that had some Mongol Shuudan in it. Coming in for the soundtrack and getting a great movie was awesome! I'd say that even as an English speaker it's a good movie, and a break from western films. I wish it was longer, I could sit and watch it for hours. I think the only reason it wasn't even better to me was the subtitles, they seemed to have lost some phrases. They seemed like they were maybe only present during important lines, I noticed the small talk tended to not have subtitles. Definitely would watch if you like Mongol Shuudan!