Progulka

Alexey Uchitel's Progulka is probably the best mainstream film about today's Russia. Shot almost in real-time manner with a hand camera, it depictures Olga, a woman in early twenties strolling the downtown streets of modern Saint Petersburg accompanied by two young men.

Her first companion is Alexey, a typical modern Russian youth, easy-going, talkative and romantic, a modern variant of SaintPete intellectuals, who meets her on the street at the very beginning of the movie and takes a walk through the city with her.

Pyotr, his best friend, has lots more of man as compared to Alexey, joins the couple later in the movie to take the day-long with them as they walk near the Isaak's Cathedral of the Russia's North capital .

The scenery is perfect, as the three of them visit the very tourist places of SaintPete, though without paying much attention to monuments and cathedrals, just enjoying life and fooling around. The guys compete for Olga's attention, they walk, see the football fans, they take the tram, Alexey get his wallet stolen by gypsies, they laugh and quarrel.

In the end, it is an easy, amazing and definitely a worth seeing movie. Apart from most of the modern Russian film-making (with a few exceptions), it shows Russia can be an enjoyful place to live . It doesn't focus social problems, terrorism, police violence, and gangsters - it just steals a glance at a day in young mens' life, shows their optimism and happiness.

Maybe a bit sour at the end - well, Uchitel and Dunya Smirnova, the scriptwriter, had to invent something to end the trip somewhere (no one dies though, so life goes on and there is no need to shed a tear) - the movie is just a perfect example of what Russian traditionally low budget mainstream cinema (as compared to US standards) can do without advertising-like special effects, mafia shootings, and superheroes.

9 out of 10 to leave some space for further improvements.

Reflection of city in the window of a car . Beautiful but unknown woman steps out of the car . has some quick back and forth with a man in the car (who we don't see) . woman starts walking . young man comes up to her and asks if he can introduce himself . they start walking together . Olya (Irina Pegova) is young women's name, Alyosha (Pavel Barshak) the young man . they start getting to know each other better . Alyosha has a good friend Petya (Yevgeni Tsyganov) who he calls to come join the two on a walk . all three young kids run around town and doing the things young people do . In the most recent film of Russian director Alexei Uchitel, Russia has never looked better. All three young kids are oozing life and energy and youthful romanticism, and seem to have forgotten Russia's recent struggle with poverty.

Playing in the style of Richard Linklater's 'Slacker' or perhaps a little tiny bit like last year's 'Russian Ark', it takes place mostly in real time, and follows these three youthful spirits around the streets of an unnamed Russian city, doing something I don't remember ever seeing Russian kids doing, just being kids. They're love-struck, carefree, financially secure , and the world is their own. Being a sheltered American growing up, all I heard about was the evil Russian empire (being in the cold war) and for those who remember that silliness it is very refreshing to see Russians portrayed as people, not as little red communists. As a viewer, you must throw away all stereotypes before going into this movie as Uchitel wonderfully captures the universal spirit of youthfulness that transcends country lines and nationality. I can't say too much about the plot because it's all surprising and leads to a fun little twist at the end. Definitely go see this if you have a chance, or if it doesn't play near you search for it when it comes to DVD. Rating: 30/40

A guy meets a girl, calls his friend and they go for a walk together on the streets of St. Peterburg doing nothing, speaking, flirting, playing fools. In 90 minutes of a real-time film they live a hole life together. They love and hate each other, they laugh and cry, they FEEL the way you can feel only when you're 20 and the whole world belongs to you. But it seems like a girl has a strange secret. It comes out at the very end of the stroll and turns everything into a real tragedy...

But now the young people are passing by the streets of St. Peterburg - the best city in the world, with its beautiful houses, crowded streets and a bit crazy inhabitants. This St. Peterburg we have never seen in movies before, but always new from real life. I love this film because of its wonderful image of the city and the perfect work of actors. And because this film is about us - or about us some years ago, our desire to live, feel and to do.

The Stroll is a new Russian adventure in the world of film-making- the adventure that recalls Battleship Potemkin, The Russian Ark and other magical and/or unrepeatable Russian films.

The Stroll has simple plot though it is interesting and the details that frill it are very deep. It is not a typical road movie although 80 per cent of it was shot on streets; the real streets of contemporary St Petersburg. The story takes place in few hours of one day of Olga and her 2 fellows and we get the feeling that the whole film was shot in one day. It is for sure was shot in short time—which I reckon was main part of the entire experimental nature of the film. However, it was obvious that preparing to shoot the film and practicing shooting and acting took very long time before (real) production has started. The crazy use of mobile camera that followed those 3 guys crossing crowded and dangerous streets made me think how lucky was the cameraperson that he/she did not get killed in a car accident. Did he/she? Hope not.

The film style is new. There is that unusual mix of applying new play-acting method to cinema. It is a result of Peter Fomenko's stage-acting method and workshops. Adapting stage-acting styles into films resulted historically in handful of amazing films including Marcel Carne's Children of Paradise and John Cassavetes' Opening Night. From this perspective The Stroll is amazing film.

I like this film. Most of all I like the idea about people, they think they know you. This two boys get to know her better than her husband. so It is not important for how many time u know somebody to know him. Aliosha is very sweet. Is he famous in Russia. That is not important but just asking. : )The film is similar to ' Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN' and to 'ARIZONA DREAM' too. It is about growing up and such a things. The music in the beginning and in the end is very good. Do somebody knows something about it? it made me cry. a little. It made me feel a little nostalgic. The music contrast withe dynamic actions through the film. maybe it is because this meeting even though it is for some hours is more important than the rest of the every days.