Absurdistan

This is a quirky comedy on similar lines with movies like Amelie and like Amelie has a strong visual style with minimum dialog. Personally I really like this kind of movies, which surprise you and delight you at every turn without any Hollywood clichés. The movie just keeps on moving from one absurd situation to other.

The female lead Kristyna Malérová is definitely easy on the eyes and has done a great job. As the movie has much less dialog as compared to a normal film, it requires the actors to convey a lot with their body and facial expressions, and the actors don't disappoint.

If you like quirky comedies like Amelie, give this one a go.

In a forgotten village in the middle of nowhere, the aging population faces a problem: lack of water. The old men are too lazy to solve the problem, and the young leave town to seek a solution but never come back. A young man, who is in love with a girl in town, must solve this problem in order to marry her. He works on that, while the rest of the village fights the classical war of the sexes. The protagonist is very charismatic. He is naive, intelligent and persistent. Since a very early age he creates ludicrous inventions, being completely different from the rest of the people in the town. He completely ignores the war and confusion going on around him, focused only in his objectives: to solve the lack of water problem. Even his girlfriend gets involved in the disputes, believing he also is involved, and adding to the pressure for a solution. A lot of funny things happen in the city, while the women try to force their husbands to work out the problem and the men try to avoid it.

Actually, because the movie was shot in Azerbaijan, I was intrigued. I came across a different movie, it wasn't what I expected. It had a different theme. Not bad.

The Title says it all: ABSURDISTAN.

An International/Russian film that has its ups and downs, so to speak! And the emphasis here is really on "INTERNATIONAL"! German Director/Co-Writer: Veit Helmer; Azerbaijani Co-Writer: Zaza Buadze; Female Lead: Kristyna Malerova-No INFO on her nationality, but surname appears to be Czech; German Male Lead: Max Mauff; The rest of the cast hails from at least a dozen different European and Westeren Asian countries! This explains why so few cast members were given dialog...Most of them either don't speak Russian, or speak it with a very discernible accent!

ABSURDISTAN is a very visual experience. IMDb talks about how the 40 year old Helmer loved silent films in his university film studies. Perhaps this is why the word "Slapstick" is bantered about a lot referring to this film. Slapstick is very over-the-top. Absurdistan's style is much too "Tableauesque" (Coining term via poetic license!) to be labeled slapstick. But whatever you want to call it: It works... Most of the time!

FANTASY is another term people seem insistent upon using to explain segments of the film. I'd say there are a few mildly surreal/absurd moments, but nothing beyond that. ABSURDISTAN really doesn't remind me of any other film, except perhaps 1960's Never on Sunday. There is one brief moment of nudity. AYA, the female lead, can't sleep owing to the heat, and climbs up on the roof, removing her pajamas. Temelko spots her and chases her around for a moment, but that's about it. There is a little simulated sex done with clothes-on, but aimed much more at comedy than at any type of arousal.

Oddly, I perceive ABSURDISTAN as a perfect extended family get-together flick, provided everyone is over 14 or 15! It's very easy to imagine a large Eastern-European family getting together and having an exceptionally enjoyable time watching this! If anybody tries my suggestion, let me know how it works out, please!.... ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English or Español, are most welcome!

Veit Helmer's "Absurdistan" is a satire on the temptation to shirk one's responsibility. It's set in a village in the Caucasus ignored by all the surrounding governments. The men are so obsessed with proving their manliness that they've ignored the aging pipe that provides the village with its water. So, the women use their own power to force some change.

One trick that the movie uses is to never identify the country in which the story takes place. They speak Russian, but it could just as easily be Georgia, Armenia or Azerbaijan (or even Chechnya). The point is that this village is one of the world's forgotten places. The people rely exclusively on each other and their know-how. It's inevitable that the two young protagonists get caught up in the village's traditions and lackadaisical attitude towards a glaring problem. For all that we know, there could be places like this in the US or Canada.

I recommend the movie.