Belye nochi pochtalyona Alekseya Tryapitsyna

My advice is to watch this film to experience it's captivating photography and the characters that live in the back country to whom the postman must deliver their mail.

You see their hope, needs, desires, boredom, and hopelessness. There really isn't a plot to this movie it's just a fascinating look into the lives of a small almost forgotten community living on the very outer edges.

This film may be much too subtle for some who are accustomed to the Hollywood-type lowest common denominator message delivery. The conversations and interactions are not stylized or dramatized - they are very natural. The scenery is stern and beautiful and the camera work is magnificent. What is especially remarkable is how gently and thoughtfully the characters are portrayed. The postman is an exceptionally kind soul. He is not handsome or muscular and he does not commit any violent acts but he is still "created in God's image" and, in his own way, very heroic. Others may be superfluous, primitive and flawed, but the film manages to fully humanize them and make them very sympathetic and likable. Another reviewer mentioned the contrast between the launch of the space rocket and the simple life of the villagers, but that is not the main point of the film. However poor these people are, the rocket does not diminish their humanity. In fact, the characters do not even notice it. It does not matter anymore that the spaceships are plowing the expanses of the universe. The scenes where the postman looks at a little ant, or hears the sounds of the past in the decaying school building, are even more profound. The important and skillfully developed idea here is that, however remote this place is, the now abandoned people living there still got caught up in the historical events forced upon them, and those events left them scarred for life.

I didn't expect docu-fiction from Konchalovskiy but that's ok... it was good. I especially enjoyed the romance between the postman and the police woman (the movie made me identify with him and desire her, as Laura Mulvey would say) as well as its lyrical moments (the rockets! the boat trip! the contemplation of nature!). I also think it's beautiful that a remote community like this has acted in a movie.

The concept is simple, the premise even more so, the execution - well done. It is a different movie in that you follow a mail carrier in a somewhat remote (but not too remote) southern part of russia. As he delivers mail we get to see his interactions with the community, learn about it, about life, their struggles, their aspirations... all of those are covered and more. It feels like a documentary at times.

Nothing in this movie is sensationalized which is very in line with russian cinema. Everything is low key but not moody or brooding as we have grown accustomed to their cinema.

The acting is very natural, the events are completely realistic, the flow is well paced and you never feel overwhelmed, lost or bored with the script.

Not much to say about it other than it is a good drama. And the locations are very nice, i could totally see myself setting up a lakeside cabin there. You really get that feel through it all since the camera work and scene composition have been well done.

You can seek deeper meaning in this, and it has plenty of that offer, or you can take it at face value. Both ways, the story is consistent and the movie works whichever way you view it. I wanted to give it an 8 but that is way too high. We will have to settle for 7 because i feel some scenes could have been better elaborated on.

The scenario: Lake Keno or Kenozero in northern Russia's Arkhangelsk district (the city of Arkhangelsk is about 300 kilometers away). The lake is not far from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, which plays a role in the story. It is summer, and the far northern latitude of the lake causes the white nights; darkness never sets in day or night. Postman Aleksey Tryapitsyn (played by himself) delivers mail by boat to the small settlements on the lake's shores. The inhabitants seem to be mostly women, children, and old people; presumably, the able bodied men have departed in search of jobs. Aleksey's visits seem to be the only communication of the locals with the outside world, except for television and occasional bus trips to nearby towns.

There are a few professional actors in the cast; the rest of the characters are real people playing themselves. Individual anecdotes and reminiscences were used by director/writer Andrey Konchalovsky and cowriter Elena Kiseleva during the writing of the screenplay. The time is post-Soviet and we have glimpses of some of the character's past from their comments and some photographs. There are also strange and whimsical happenings such as the disappearing grey cat and rockets from Plesetsk making their way to space in the background.

The action: nothing much happens, except for a theft mid-movie. However, what we witness are real characters in they real milieu. The film bears the seal of truth and envelops us in its magic from beginning to end. An essential component is the outstanding cinematography by Aleksander Simonov. It does justice not only to the beautiful, melancholic summer landscapes of Northern Russia but to the modest houses and their drab interiors which, without obvious trick lighting come to life with the poetry of common things and with an almost three dimensional look. One of the most fascinating films I have seen.