Magnitnye buri

This hour and a half movie premiered at the Russian film festival in New York this autumn. It aimed at portraying grass-root, ordinary people that inhabit Russia outside the capital. This film does exactly that, but mostly in gray colors. Maybe too much gray and ordinary. People, most of them work at the local factory, are depicted here as dull gray mass, easily controlled and manipulated. Russian cinema used to have a lot of noir movies, with blood, guts, pathetic characters and miserable finale's, with one central point, To shock audience. This movie tries to stand aside by cutting down on violence. Yet, by loosing all the shocking value (fight scenes look fake, there is no life/death drama), by loosing noir, it turned gray. After all this, I still liked the movie. I liked effect of presence, of being there, in the movie. Actors did a good job at making me care for them. That, and a flask of good cognac.

I'd like to say some words to clear an idea of this film. Before I saw it I have seen an interview with Abdrashitov and Mindadze and can say, that my perception was ready to this cleaver movie. Also I saw almost all of the films of Abdrashitov. All of them in my opinion can be called Art-House or at least "movie not for all". "Magnitnie buri" is not an exception. The story can be seen as very simple, noir and so on. But it's a metaphysic story. The people live they simple lives in a small town, but at night they are changing absolutely, so as they would be influenced throw a magnetic storm or an mystic power. They fight with each other like crazy. But in the morning they don't remember that... It can be that the screenplay writer Mindadze has wrote a story about our relationships with our subconscious. Sometimes it could not be controlled... Will be ready the hero of film to take it under the control? See the movie;)