Como Eu Terminei Este Verão

This film is a must watch for any film enthusiast.Shows the power of camera.The near perfect acting by all the cast(even if the number is just 2) makes this one a memorable experience.

A stunning drama on human emotions,relation and communication shot with breathtaking visuals. The plot is simple and the development happens in almost seamless manner through powerful visual story telling, dialogues and voice acting.You will struggle to find any other film which captures the stunning beauty of Arctic like this film does.

Another thing to note is the awesome use of sound in this film.Whether the radio, or nature or the sound of water or boat,the sound department has done more than what many expects out of it.

Except for sexual relations, almost all human character/emotions/expression can be seen in this film- fear, lies, friendship, boss, freedom, celebration, learning, longing, tension, enmity, guilt, grief, childish, lazy, discipline, compassion, forgiveness and much more. And to imagine all these have been achieved by just 2 characters alone is a majestic achievement in itself.

One of the best films of 2010.Truly original.

How i ended this summer was the winner of the 2010 London film festival award and it also won many other awards from around the world and quite rightly so in my opinion.

Two men of different generations , who work on a an Arctic weather station , come to blows when the younger man has to tell his colleague of a family tragedy but fears the consequences of telling him.

This film will not appeal to everyone. It's a Russian film directed by Aleksei Popogrebsky and although subtitled , does not really depend on a large amount of dialogue to tell the story.

It starts of at a slow pace and as the film progresses , the tension builds to the point that it gets the viewer angry as to the decisions that are being made. Why doesn't the young man tell his elder the news? Is he really that scared of him? What will happen when he finds out?

This is a film about human relationships and vulnerability .

Apart from the tense story , it looks superb too and i only hope lots of people give this film a chance because they wont regret it.

Two men man an isolated weather station in the Arctic circle. Sergei is older and experienced with a wife and son at home. Pavel is young and bored, resentful of Sergei's dominance yet dependent on it. Into this already tense environment comes the news that Sergei's wife and son were badly injured in an accident. Pavel receives the message while Sergei is out fishing. Because of the way things play out, Pavel doesn't deliver the message right away; as the opportune moment passes him by, it becomes harder and harder to tell Sergei even while the direness of his screw up becomes more and more obvious. Eventually, hostilities boil over and Pavel's paranoia reaches such a crescendo that he takes off into the wilderness on a self-imposed cat and mouse chase, convinced that Sergei wants to kill him.

It's almost ludicrous that something that really is at heart pretty banal (failing to deliver a message, even if that message is very serious) could trigger events that reach the conclusion they do (I won't spoil it, but the end to this movie is grim, folks). But the movie is so well made and acted that everything is entirely plausible, and it's easy to see how distrust can so easily grow when given the right conditions.

My understanding is that both actors won German film prizes for their work, and no wonder. Until the final scene, not another human being appears, and it falls to the two of them to hold our attention with nothing more than a stark if beautiful landscape to act against.

Well hold it they do.

Grade: A

It is a small travesty that more films like this from across the pond don't get a wider audience (I think the only reason this has managed to get a UK release was the fact that it won Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival). But this small gem has managed to escape obscurity and has now been given a cinema release so that everyone can enjoy this small gem.

First, may I state the following: this is not a thriller! Please do not start watching this film expecting Russia's interpretation of Hitchcock - you will be sorely disappointed! The film itself has relatively little in terms of plot - a fact that another reviewer has (unfairly) criticised it for. Instead, what we receive as viewers is a quietly poignant, at times almost meditative exploration of isolation and the tensions that arise between the two leading characters in the vast, sparse, beautiful terrain of the Arctic in which they work.

As the film develops, the suspense certainly mounts, and at one point, a tense cat and mouse chase does develop. Indeed, it is not only themselves, but their surroundings which they have to tread carefully around - sinister hints about a deserted house on a cliff top and the danger posed by polar bears play their role. But don't try and second guess the film, because above all, this is a truly understated, moving exploration of human fragility rather than an action flick. The ending made me smile in surprise, and I felt ashamed at how cynically I had felt that I knew where the film was going. You will never see an ending as mature as this coming from Hollywood.

I won't bother with a plot summary - the one provided by IMDb is more than sufficient. What I will say is that both the acting and the cinematography are superb. The two leads both do wonderful jobs in which the performances require far more than the confines of the dialogue - so much of this film takes place in silence, and both men tackle their parts with great success. Then there is the cinematography - it has been a while since I have seen such beautiful images come together to create such an atmosphere of isolation and buried tension. The vast, beautiful landscape, the pale blue skies, the gentle lull of the sea, the calm glassy lakes, the dark, imposing cliffs, and then the intermittent fog... postcards could be made using some of these images. The effect is perfect.

In short, this is definitely worth the watch, and it's one to look out for in 2011!

"Kak ya provyol etim letom" (Russian title contains intentional misspell-pin and should be read "How I Cheated (somebody) Last Summer", not just this school-like "How I Spent Last Summer", chosen for foreign version) is a Russian psychological drama about two meteorologists, the old, Sergei, and the young, Pavel, who get stuck on an isolated polar station for a regular season work and have to deal with each other ...and the information, that arrives from the "big earth".

Visually and stylistically film is flawless. Cinematography with it's slow-pacing, static long shots and scenic wild nature shots is adorable. Atmosphere, when time seems ticking slower and cold wind awaits for you from another side of the door, is on the good level too. And as a native-speaker, I can say that dialogue-lines are also pretty decent. Polar station as a place is just a cause for examination of human communication (so-called "chemistry") in isolated space. Subject deals with responsibility, instinct of self-preservation, influence of isolated space to human psychics and importance of experience. I don't want to spoil your first-time-watching, so I won't go into plot any further...

Can't name any similarities. Maybe the closest will be: "Breaking the Waves" meets "Gerry" and "Shutter Island" (no delusions here, similarity is geographical) along with Russian "Dikoe Pole" (2008) and maybe even "Kukushka" (2002). Plus some Michael Haneke's style (like from most recently - though black and white - "Das Weisse Band" with it's distant human behavior examination). In my opinion, "Kak ya provyol etim letom" is one of the best Russian movies of the decade (2000-2010) along with Alexei Balabanov's "Gruz 200", "Morfiy" and above-mentioned Alexander Rogozhkin's "Kukushka". And yes, it is way better than Zvyagintsev's pretentious force-fed Tarkovsky-styled issues "Vozvraschenie" & "Izgnanie".

Don't know how soon those of you who don't speak Russian will be available to watch this with subtitles or voice-over...

So, if you're often bored with 2-hour non-action movies - don't bother watching this. Try something more entertaining. But if you're into slow-paced minimalistic psychological dramas, give it a try. You'll be aesthetically rewarded.

8-8,5\10.