Compartiment n°6

I have just watched this at the Mostra Internacional de São Paulo.

It feels very genuine: the acting is naturalistic and the story, simple. It's a road movie/coming of age experience that teaches us a few valuable lessons without preaching them. Also a reminder of how much we miss natural-looking people on the big screen.

Let's put one thing to rest. Anywhere at all where there are night trains, the sexes are mixed. Even in Muslim countries - the night sleepers in Morocco, for example, are not single sex cabins. Not knowing this is not a reason for giving low marks just because they find the situation unbelievable!

As for relationships in the film, ideas of distance and travel played a huge part. The further from Moscow, the more the lesbian lover receded and rejected. But the nearer to the petroglyphs, the deeper the bond between the ill matched compartment mates became.

However, the script didn't go overboard - there was no sentimentality in the refusal to swap addresses.

90s Russia was portrayed perfectly. Not yet a consumer society, there were hangovers from the communist times, notably in the appalling service offered on hotels and restaurants as well as the train itself.

As a speaker of (very poor) Finnish, I loved the joke about the terrible swear word in that language that framed the narrative on the train. It means a lot more than the tame subtitled translation that was offered.

I loved this film. The actors were perfect as were the locations. I personally enjoy train journeys and would now want to go on this one.

I was curious to see 'Compartment no 6', the film by Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, which became one of the most awarded movies on the festival circuit during this special year which is 2021. The film is a 'road movie' or if you wish a 'railroad movie' , whose story takes place most of the time in a train that runs through the Russian steppe from Moscow to Murmansk, in the far north, beyond the Arctic Circle. Two young people, a Finn woman and a Russian man, who have nothing in common except enough reasons not to be able to tolerate each other are forced to spend the three days and two nights of the trip together. The formula seems pretty rusty, especially as what almost everything viewers expect after the first ten minutes of watching the film happens, and yet, beyond the not very original story, the film manages to catch the attention through sincerity and the natural and empathetic way in which the characters and the reality around them are treated.

The film director and the lead heroine are Finnish, but the story takes place in Russia, sometime in the late '90s. Laura (Seidi Haarla), a student in Moscow, is planning a trip to Murmansk, in the far north of Russia, together with Irina, her Russian girlfriend. The friend gives up at the last moment and from what will follow we understand that the relationship was almost over from her point of view. Laura takes the trip alone, in a sleeping cars train, the purpose of the trip being to see some petroglyphs 10 thousand years old, which arouse her interest as a future archaeologist. In the train she is assigned to the same compartment with a young Russian man named Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), a drunk and rude person. She tries to find a place in another compartment, but this proves to be impossible. The trip promises to become a nightmare, the communication between the two being hampered by differences in language (Laura speaks only elementary Russian), culture, and alcohol fumes. From here, however, things will evolve.

The interaction between the two works wonderfully, and even if the situations are not that original - we have already seen similar ones in too many romantic comedies - the subtlety of the script writing, the talent and the chemistry between the two actors manage to make the relationship credible and human, leaving room for multiple subtexts and interpretations. The romantic element appears late, and until then the communication between the two young people is based neither on language (which is a tool of misunderstanding rather than understanding) nor on sexual attraction. Cultural differences are subtly described, juggling around stereotypes. We can of course ask ourselves how true to realities is the image of Russia in the first decade after communism that is presented to us on screen. I know too little about Finnish cinema, except for a few films by Aki Kaurismaki, so I'm not sure if my assessment is correct, but it seemed to me that compared to what I saw, the focus is less on the comic and sarcastic dimensions and more on the human connection and communication between the heroes. In other words, 'Compartment no 6' looks more like a Russian film about a young Finnish woman directed by a Finn than like a Finnish film. Anyway and whatever shelf we lay it, it is a simple and good film, whose viewing has chances to please many spectators. The actors do an excellent job, and the camera work makes watching the scenes on the train, in Russian homes, or from the frozen steppe an immersive experience. The decisions of the juries of festivals such as Cannes or Jerusalem, I believe, will in this case be validated by the reception of the public.

What would you do, in a carriage made for four, there's just you and a drunk guy, and he thinks that you're a whore, there's nowhere to run or hide, this will not be a great ride, but you're stoic and heroic, you will take it in your stride.

A wonderful story, as Laura and Ljoha, two strangers on a train, gradually allow the ice that encapsulates us all to thaw, defrost, puddle and merge, creating a bond that was as distant as the poles when they first encountered each other at the beginning of their journey from Moscow to Murmansk. A story that proves what a catalyst we can be to each other when the barriers are removed to reveal the compassionate and emotional beings we are deep inside.

Compartment Number 6 is superficially a bleak 'Russian' railRoad film largely centered on a mismatched couple thrown together in a train compartment travelling from Moscow to Murmansk. I gather it was largely filmed in Russia, Moscow, but is directed by the Finnish, Juho Kuosmanen, who had previous success in Cannes and then shared the grand Prix there in 2021 for this effort, (with "A Hero"). It is from a Finnish novel by Rosa Liksom.

I like bleak "Russian" films (They are unpredictable, often very well done and more like my impression of life -) and this didn't disappoint. Laura is an older Finnish student, having an affair with her landlady in Moscow, circa the 90's. Landlady may be over the affair and has pulled out of a planned trip the 2 were making to see petraglyphs in Murmansk (these are 1000 year + old rock carvings and sound fascinating. Go in summer and maybe by plane.) So Laura decides to go anyway. After an uncomfortable pseudo-sophisticated farewell party where the gauche Laura tries hard but flails and seems out of place with the neat pretentious guests, she joins the train heading north to Murmansk. Russian winter. To her dismay she finds sharing the cabin is a boorish, rude, heavy drinking, Russian miner Ljoha (Yuri Borisov) heading back up there to his mine. She cant get another cabin. So there they are - both in their way lacking social graces and pretty dysfunctional. And you can compare these 2, with the earlier relaxed members of society at the party.

The Acting particularly of the lead couple is excellent as is direction and the filming in and out of the train. Bleak and rough but also in some way sweet. I liked it.