Gololyod

Director Mikhail Brashinsky won the "New Director's Showcase" award at the Seattle International Film Festival, 2003, for this film. The jury that awarded him the prize called it "A striking directorial debut that abandons traditional narrative structure in favor of provocative aesthetics and inventive storytelling." Out of the 80 films I saw at that festival, this film was one of my favorites. In a realm of cinema where the struggle that filmmakers face, of trying to fit a story into a flowing narrative, this film goes beyond the conventions and gives us refreshing cinema with all its human rawness. Shot on Sony DVcam 100, and utilizing exactly 1101 shot set ups, fit into 77 minutes of film time, we witness what a five minute encounter can lead a person into. One minute we start learning more about our main character, until the next minute we completely change main characters and are left in a new story. Hi-contrast lighting and imagery add to the edginess of the characters' mental realm. Very nice use of out-of-focus fotography, used as creating layers within the image. The role that out-of-focus shots take in this film are similar to how silence functions within music. The soundtrack utilizes a mix of sound effects, thus taking the concept of a melodic film score a big step further and insists on re-defining what film music should be. It is very rare that cinema gets more refreshing than this. Former film critic Mikhail Brashinsky showed me a side of Russian cinema that i never knew existed. Thanks to this film, the 29th annual Seattle International Film Festival was a rewarding experience.

I was expecting good things from this film but was sorely disappointed. The director has set himself the task of fitting in as many cuts into the running time as possible - but it leaves the film a headache-inducing, confusing mess. Moreover, we change main characters midway and abandon all hope of coherence. I love experimental films - but when they are done with intelligence and with purpose. This had neither. It did however have an interesting gay character which is unusual for Russian films but then his boyfriend was a stereotypical whiner. Shame. If you are interested in new Russian films - you'd be better off checking out 'The Return' or 'Koktebel'', for instance.

Interesting... The main female character introduced in the beginning is disappeared from the screen in 15 minutes. The whole point is to make you watch the second part wating for her to return and explain some unfinished things. She won't do it but you are going to consume a story (may be a half of it) of a gay transforming to "normal". Frankly, because he's got some feelings towards that vanished woman. Gay theme is not exactly a bite for the ordinary audience, so here is the trick ))

BTW "the transformation" is reminiscent of werewolf stuff )) I'd love to know why.