Nosorih

Fortunate to see this at the Venice Film Festival and what a crazy ride. Forced to be up and close with characters in a world that has no breaks. Felt transported and loved every minute of it. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

In my opinion this is quite a remarkable piece of storytelling. Dark, brutal - very, very brutal - but never quite bleak. You see the humanity that is - or, at least was - in the central character and you hope he can find some kind of salvation. Will he find redemption, or sink deeper into the quagmire of his life. Or will justice catch up with him? No spoilers...

This is the kind of film I usually hate. They often portray a fantasy criminal world, with a 'good guy' who lives happily ever after, or portray the the criminals as the dregs of society and you don't care what happens to them. This movie manages to be completely different and keeps you interested right to the end.

I'm glad I liked this film. Sentsov became something of a hero to me after his imprisonment (even though I'm too old to have heroes and he would hate to be a hero to anyone). He's a man of intelligence, integrity and courage, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of his work.

If we talk about this movie, we have to understand some context. Forget about "Gamer". This is a real debut of Oleh Sentsov.

About the subject: It's OK. In every case OK. Not genius, with addicted to genre cliche, but the most important thing - it works. It is interesting to watch the movie from the beginning till the end.

Characters: Nice cast. You believe in personalities. If they say, a bandit has nickname Skull - you understand why.

Visual: a little bit more of hand camera and non-stabled plans, but in fact good. Especially there is no romantic vision of 90-s in Ukraine. Brutal time looks brutal and it's good.

In general I will recomend this movie, but not for people who doesn't like brutal violence.

This Ukrainian crime film, speaking of a petty hoodlum story, is certainly not for the squeamish, not for the sissies. It is brutal, bloody, cruel, but not without spirit. It is brilliant, a real testimony of the Ukrainian society, hopeless, desperate, but not without conscience. This petty hoodlum diary is predictable and the extreme violence never gratuitous, at last that's my own opinion. It is gritty, tough but poignant, sensitive, gloomy and not for all audiences. I have seen such films from indie film industries from many countries and I really love this. Forget the Hollywood crap. Watch this instead. The opening sequence in a long take is incredible.

A sad and bloody tale of the whole generation lost amid the ruins of Soviet Empire. As someone who happened to be a teenager during the 90's in Ukraine, I find the brutality of daily life and decaying environment to be very believable.

Good actors, a great director that offers no moral judgement, just a simple, easy to follow story about traumatized society.

This movie is not for everybody. If it didn't look like a documentary about my own life, I probably wouldn't have recommend it to anyone. If you meet a Ukrainian in their 40's or 50's and want to understand why they are the way they are, then watch this movie.