Gorod Zero

I haven't seen this movie on DVD and that's a pity. For those, who are Lynch fans, this will be a pleasant surprise. I watched the movie years ago and I found it brilliant - great script, interesting story, crazy city, and the scene in the restaurant is something to remember... I think this is the best film of this director, though I haven't seen many. It's a surreal story of a man, trapped in an non existing city, surrounded by its habitants, who linger between memories and reality, death and vegetation. As time passes he realizes, that there is no use to fight the city, there is no escape from its hug. I recommend the movie strongly.

I only saw one scene from this film, in the 'entertainment' section of a TV news magazine from India. the clip they showed was from a scene in a restaurant, and was the most bizarre thing I had ever seen, though with a strong sense of black humor, not gross or repulsive. here's the scene in brief (for those who want to read about it):

a guy dining by himself in a corner of the restaurant, is approached by the staff with dessert (covered by a lid). the guy tells them he didn't order any dessert, but the staff persist him to partake of it, saying that the cook made it specially for him and that if he doesn't eat it, the cook will be heartbroken. the guy glances over to the kitchen door, and sees the cook ready to slice his own throat with a knife. alarmed, he agrees to taste the dessert. the staff take off the lid, and the guy gasps as he sees his own head on the platter! the staff tells him to relax, as it is just a cake made to look like his head. they carve a slice off the top of the 'head' and serve it to the bewildered and scared guy.

I have been looking for this film since 1988, & hope it gets a DVD release soon. and based on just that one scene, I would recommend this film strongly to anyone who likes David Lynch, The Coen Bros, Franz Kafka, etc...or anyone who wants to see something different for a change (that is, after you are done with your Matrix, Charlie's Angels, etc. of course).

I saw this film while living in Moscow in the late 80s/early 90s and it truly summarizes a lot of the bizarreness of day-to-day Soviet life. The engineer visits this small provincial town where nothing is normal and he encounters all sorts of weird people. It's a very absurd story, but if you understand the way the old USSR worked, it makes a strange sort of sense.

"If Shakhnazarov isn't a supernal filmmaker of visual finesse and most members of its male-dominant cast is far too grim and starchy by simply performing in rote, whereas their opposite sex is dismally reduced to peripheral ciphers, namely, a nude secretary, a glamorous woman functions merely as a chauffeur, or a voiceless matron whose sincere request of a dance is interrupted by the male intrusion, ZEROGRAD still remains a marvel to watch, not merely validated by Shakhnazarov's sensible political concerns and his homegrown compassion, but also, more impressively, by the astonishing tableaux vivants which crop up in the midstream and near the coda (offering ironic, anachronistic remarks to further muddy the waters), credited to its production designer Lyudmila Kusakova. It takes some time for viewers to discern that those museum exhibitions are actually actors in heterogeneous costumes and under maquillage, betrayed by tiny movements that are almost imperceptible, what billows out is that strange aroma of "magical surrealism" that is ever so fertile in the Eastern European cinema edifice."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks

This movie is a fable of our life - we eventually - every single of us - few exceptions happen, arrive to unknown place and get trapped there to never - most of us break free. And the rest of our life we spend watching without any disbelief at idiocy and absurd around us and abandoning any hope to take a train to Moscow. This movie is Checkov's Cherry Orchard retold in today's words with memory of absurd history of XX cent. So sweet for a Western heart explanation of Soviet system as "oppressive communist regime" has nothing to do with reality - oppression was not coming from KGB, it was in the hopeless idiotism, status quo, absolute stagnation. Sci Fi experiment, the one word which describes the life in USSR is "boring". We know that without sensory inputs, deprived of them our brain starts to generate illusions. This is what you see in this "movie", I put it in commas because for me it is not a fiction movie, it is a documentary.