Tesnota

Just a heads up for anyone who is thinking to watch this movie. There is a really gruesome documentary scene of killing prisoners of war. If you don't want to see agonising death of real people, which does not add much to a plot of the movie, just move on. To the director, here is an idea to you: next time add funky town videotape in your film (please don't)

A warning of extreme violence content in this film should be shown. Besides, it is a very ugly film.

Focusing on a teenage daughter in a Jewish family whose brother is kidnapped and held for ransom. The inequality and desire to fit into a prejudiced culture, the pain of growing up and being treated like a child. Contains a piece of video that emphasises what could happen to hostages but is extremely sickening and gratuitous and could spoil the film for some.

Boring from the beginning to the end.

Although it was supposed to be about the kidnapping of a couple, the kidnapping itself takes back seat to all kinds of mostly unrelated stuff.

The movie is painful to watch due to the extremely slow pace.

Scenes of extreme violence shown unexpectedly - before I even had time to wind it fast forward.

Most of the characters are more than abnormal, I would say deviants.

The soundtrack is horrible, my wife who is native russian speaker was not able to understand more than 20-30% of what was being said, so she had to rely on the English subtitles.

Conclusion: cinematography at its worst.

A really interesting debut from Balagov that earned him the favour of critics at the Cannes film festival in 2017.

This movie represents a very deep dive in the patriarchal culture, permeating Russia and North Caucasus in general, how the women struggle with the lack of ability to choose their own path, the way they are treated by their parents and everyone around them. At the same time, it is also a dive into the idea of toxic mother's love, that gets overbearing and, at times quite literally, to the point of choking the children.

Also, about the violence, which some of the previous rewires have deemed unnecessary - unfortunately, it was necessary, as it drives the plot and the ethnic conflict between the native ethnicities of North Caucasus and everyone else. It is also an important contextual detail to understanding why the family feels alienated.