Moskva

I took the movie very seriously. Of course it is a black farce. But not only so.

I love to watch this movie. The director captured my attention and held it. The acting is extremely well-done down to the smallest gesture. The dialogue is meaningful; the silences even more so. Tatyana Drybich found her role here.

To me the movie uses this medium of dark farce to make some uncomfortable points about the course of Russia. That is obvious. But also it talks about what is meaningful to anyone. I think the dentist has an important role in the film, and his character is particularly well-done. Bravo!!! Very moving, poignant.

Moscow in the late 1990s - the city without past or future. It is cleared of people and cars. It is sterile and empty. There is almost always a dark night in that Moscow and the only place alive is a night bar. Confusion, despair, drinking, joyless sex, nostalgia for the past, golden girls and boys of 70s, senseless conversations and long meaningful silence. The feast during the time of plague. This Moscow does not believe in tears, words, or promises and does not forgive the smallest mistakes. Chekhovian interiors, three beautiful women with the name of three sisters, Irina, Masha, and Olga. This time they are a mother and two daughters but the mother looks as young and beautiful as her daughters. Finally, they are in Moscow but it did not make them happy. The men in their lives, "new Russians", criminals who love Art and dream of Russian Ballet Renaissance and Artists who look and act like criminals. They sleep with some, marry the others, and love someone else. Money, a lot of money that comes and goes easily and disappears without a trace. What's next? I don't know. It is not my city anymore. What I do know that Alexander Zeldovich made a closest to masterpiece post-Soviet film. Not Zvyagintsev with "The Return", not Chukhrai with "The Thief", and certainly not Nikita Mikhalkvov with his postcard "The Barber of Siberia". If ever a movie reflects the dark time of the night watch, the time of absurdity, lack of logic and death of hopes - "Moskva" it is. The screenplay was written by one of the most popular, talented and notorious Russian writers, Vladimir Sorokin and it combines bleak criminal drama with Chekhov motives and very dark comedy. The cinematography and remakes of the old popular Soviet songs are works of geniuses, no more, no less. I don't mention acting - everyone had a role of their life.

This is simply the best Russian movie of the last decade. The plot is really irrelevant, although I wouldn't call it thin: gangsters try to recover money presumably stolen by a courier, who is dating two sisters and their mother (obvious reference to Chekov's `Three sisters', who dreamed of moving to Moscow). Now they do live in Moscow. and nothing changes for them!

There's fun and violence, and more fun. Most of the jokes and contextual and might not be readily understandable by non-Russian audience. Still, the movie is worth seeing just for the cinematography, light, act and entourage of the city now defunct (the crisis of 1998 destroyed the Moscow as shown in `Moskva'). The dialog is also brilliant, however I can't imagine it being adequately translated.

A must-see for anyone interested in the ways of modern Russia.