Les silencieuses

This is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Acting, particularly by Dina Korzun, is incredibly strong and vivid. Also,Chulpan Hamatova was an excellent pick for the Rita part. She's natural, yet at times IMO, fails to match Korzun. The scene, where Rita tries to comfort Yaya after the dreadful experience and Yaya first mentions the Strana Gluhih and describes it to her, was the best IMO. Overall, plot is not quite thorough yet catchy. It provides an interesting perspective to lives of Muscovites during the transition from USSR to Russia. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone who's fed up with the crap that keeps coming out of Hollywood persistently for quite some years now. I just wish I'd seen this movie earlier. Two thumbs up.

It's a good movie. As almost all the modern Russian movies it has a significant Hollywood feel to it, but all in all it's in the good old tradition. The acting is good (almost always), the plot is simple and effective. Quite a few scenes are done really good. In a sense it combines the depth of European (Russian) movies with power and speed of Hollywood. For example compare the scene of break up of Lesha and Rita with the drugs deal in the airport which is made in the best traditions of Tarantino. All in all good movie worth watching.

not in common rules limits. but interesting metaphor about escape, friendship, need of certitude and illusion and search to discover yourself in the other. far to be perfect, with too large slice of contemporary Russian reality, it remains beautiful first for two virtues - the performance of Dina Korzun and Chiulpan Kamatova and the end. a film about two women and their choices. that is all. a kind of parable. or only a film about importance of small things. many unrealistic scenes. but the science of actresses to give inspired solutions really works. a movie who can be good occasion to reflection. about the tools to create a decent drama with influences of Russian theater, to discover image from East in a cruel manner, to remember the fascination of great Soviet movies.

This film is more than it appears at first glance. Various themes are weaved together to produce a beautiful picture of the relationship between the two leading female characters. The criminal sphere in Moscow is only fraction of the movie and anyone who enjoys a good intellectual drama will find Todorovsky's adaptation of Renata Litvinova's "To Have and To Belong" an absorbing find.

This movie is wonderful if you consider yourself a 'beginner' at Russian culture. It's very organic and flows wonderfully from scene to scene. It doesn't feel like a crime drama, it feels much more light-hearted with certain rebellious qualities, as if to say, 'Yeah, the Mafia is in this movie, but who says I have to slaughter twelve guys as messily as possible?" It's a breath of fresh air. A great deal of the action is conveyed purely through body language, which is especially poignant in a movie about deaf people - try watching it with the subtitles off, you'll see what I mean. One unforeseen benefit this movie offers is to beginning students of the Russian language. It is great because most if not all of the people in the movie speak very loudly and slowly as they are signers speaking in Russian, or at least portraying them.