Ya ne vernus

Every step along the way is trite, cliche and the ending is not believable.

Fights, cops, chases, thefts, extortion, car accidents, death, nursery stories, histrionics, etc. All there just to liven things up. Would be OK in the usual action movie, but adds nothing here.

I saw this in the Cannes market two weeks ago and it has lingered in my mind as one of the better offerings at the festival as a whole. It appears at first to be a gritty piece of social realism in the manner of Ken Loach but gradually evolves, adding touches of humour and wistful fantasy as the protagonists break out of their urban environment and settle into a road-movie routine. A late plot development introduces a blast of harsh reality and paves the way to a bitter-sweet conclusion. Polina Pushkaruk is excellent as Anya, the young woman determined to put her past behind her, and Vika Lobacheva utterly charming as the 13-year-old who plays on her heart-strings. This is accomplished filmmaking, and Ilmar Raag is clearly not a newcomer on the scene. He does not appear to have established himself as a name in the West, but hopefully I Won't Come Back is a first step towards changing that.

The Title of the film is as much the theme of the main character's journey as it is her enigma. Sterility-of-function-Anya receives a rare, gold medal for her orphanage performance, at the beginning.. For this she can barely smile. We see her fierce soul evidence when she breaks from her peers to preserve her virginity--a strange, rare jewel in this film's harsh, Soviet-style paganism. I'll stop here, as the spirit of this character is much more than mere drama unfolding. Anya's roller coaster ride takes us through the machinations of decades of adult living in mere weeks, touching realities many person's whole lives are too timid to embrace. If you are a typical, Western 'zombie', this is not your movie to watch.

Christine was a separate individual than Anya. But try and think of her as Anya herself, a few years younger. And that Anya is trying to get away from this smaller Anya whom she can't get rid of. As she faces the world, the little Anya within helps the grown up Anya to survive and she starts finding and liking her own self as a result. Eventually the younger Anya has loved her purpose, and the older gets home.

This movie is one of the best I've seen. It's sad, uplifting, beautiful, well acted, has beautiful scenery and it's basically vibrating with humanity.