Syostry

I really liked this one. I have been on somewhat of a Russian movie bender for the last 4 or 5 months. Most of the movies I have seen have been unremarkable, basically repackage Hollywood with a Russian veneer. However, there have been a few films that have stuck out as something different, films that could only be made in Russia.

I have never been to Russia so I cannot say that the film has any bearing in reality. However, the film seemed real, in the same way that reality can be stranger than fiction. One of the things I loved about this movie is that none of it is filmed in Moscow or St. Petersburg (as far as I could tell). That is pretty rare for a Russia drama that deals solely with the human condition. You get to see a lot of the small town and semi-rural (dascha) parts of Russia in this movie, which is much more interesting than seeing St. Basil's Cathedral for the umteenth millionth time.

The soundtrack in this movie is probably my most favorite of any Russian movie I have seen. It actually works with the screen material and reminds me a lot of movies like Brat and Bumer. There are parts of the film that seem a bit unpolished and awkward, but overall, this is definitely one film to check out if you are into Russia films and culture.

Syostry is a melancholic and touching movie, which gets quite close to the new Russian reality. The reality where a teenager girl dreams of becoming whether a sniper in Chechnya or a bodyguard for a new Russian (gangster).

Oksana Akinshina, who plays the older sister, has something inevitably tragic in her appearance (watch Lilja 4-ever by Lukas Moodysson). She reminded me Jean Seberg form the J.-L. Godard's Breathless and Juliette Biinoche from the L. Carax' Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. This movie is the second and last film shot by Sergei Bodrov Jr., who got a cult status (just like Victor Tsoy whose music he had used in Syostry), when he was reported missing in 2002 after the avalanche accident.

I think this is a very good movie because it expresses the soul of Russia, the way I'm imagining Russia. There are not very long dialogs in the film, only very short and pointed conversations between people exists. Furthermore people very rarely laugh, the mood seems to be authentic Russian, with a little bit depression in it all the time.

The shots Sergej Budrov makes are also excellent, they are very impressive and get you in something like a state of trance. The acting is also good, from the cool Russian Mafia gangster to the two young sisters all actors play their roles convincing and no one is overacting.

So if you have about an hour time, go watch this fine Russian movie.

• In remembrance of Sergej Budrov -

This is one of the best movies from the early year of the new millennium, not just Russian point of view but also movies in general.

Two sisters are forced to work with each when their parents abandoned them after the mafia hunts them, the mafia hunts the sisters. A road walk adventure and to find themselves.

Also it's one of Sergey Budrov last movie before the accident that killed him, Rest In Peace to one of the best actors.

"Sisters" is the directorial debut of the cult actor Sergey Bodrov, who tragically died on the set of the next film. A crime drama about how the mortal danger of a chase brings two sisters who hate each other. Another debut, acting and very successful, by Oksana Akinshina.