Gorod Zero

I saw this film while living in Moscow in the late 80s/early 90s and it truly summarizes a lot of the bizarreness of day-to-day Soviet life. The engineer visits this small provincial town where nothing is normal and he encounters all sorts of weird people. It's a very absurd story, but if you understand the way the old USSR worked, it makes a strange sort of sense.

I was quite surprised to see this another masterpiece from Karen Shahnazarov. This is real fantasy with the good presence of mystics and social criticism. The main character is an ordinary engineer who comes to an obscure town to fix some business questions. But instead of it he faces very gloomy and weird freedom there. The real hymn of irrationality and rock music. This film looks more like a nightmare dream of a narrow-minded person who comes to some other reality and succeeds to go away in the end. One can see some nudity, psycho- violence and questioning here, but the meaning lies beyond the moral standards of that time in in the USSR.

"If Shakhnazarov isn't a supernal filmmaker of visual finesse and most members of its male-dominant cast is far too grim and starchy by simply performing in rote, whereas their opposite sex is dismally reduced to peripheral ciphers, namely, a nude secretary, a glamorous woman functions merely as a chauffeur, or a voiceless matron whose sincere request of a dance is interrupted by the male intrusion, ZEROGRAD still remains a marvel to watch, not merely validated by Shakhnazarov's sensible political concerns and his homegrown compassion, but also, more impressively, by the astonishing tableaux vivants which crop up in the midstream and near the coda (offering ironic, anachronistic remarks to further muddy the waters), credited to its production designer Lyudmila Kusakova. It takes some time for viewers to discern that those museum exhibitions are actually actors in heterogeneous costumes and under maquillage, betrayed by tiny movements that are almost imperceptible, what billows out is that strange aroma of "magical surrealism" that is ever so fertile in the Eastern European cinema edifice."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks

I haven't seen this movie on DVD and that's a pity. For those, who are Lynch fans, this will be a pleasant surprise. I watched the movie years ago and I found it brilliant - great script, interesting story, crazy city, and the scene in the restaurant is something to remember... I think this is the best film of this director, though I haven't seen many. It's a surreal story of a man, trapped in an non existing city, surrounded by its habitants, who linger between memories and reality, death and vegetation. As time passes he realizes, that there is no use to fight the city, there is no escape from its hug. I recommend the movie strongly.

An unknown little treasure of the Soviet cinema, based on the story of a man sent to a town where nothing seems real. Definitely a feast for lovers of true cinema, while slow at times, is an intriguing, minimalistic piece of work. In fact this slowness, added to the lack of music and dialog at parts, becomes a plus for the film in a strange way. The whole movie has a dreamlike, Eraserhead-ish atmosphere, so slyly given that you often feel like you're watching someone's dream on the screen.

I can't help but agree that, as one other reviewer has mentioned, there are quite a number of references to the Soviet way of life of the period, but naturally they may be hard to catch for everyone. Still, this does not detach the audience.

Certainly not for fans of hollywood crap, but movie fans who want to see something unique should see Zero City.