Syostry

I really liked this one. I have been on somewhat of a Russian movie bender for the last 4 or 5 months. Most of the movies I have seen have been unremarkable, basically repackage Hollywood with a Russian veneer. However, there have been a few films that have stuck out as something different, films that could only be made in Russia.

I have never been to Russia so I cannot say that the film has any bearing in reality. However, the film seemed real, in the same way that reality can be stranger than fiction. One of the things I loved about this movie is that none of it is filmed in Moscow or St. Petersburg (as far as I could tell). That is pretty rare for a Russia drama that deals solely with the human condition. You get to see a lot of the small town and semi-rural (dascha) parts of Russia in this movie, which is much more interesting than seeing St. Basil's Cathedral for the umteenth millionth time.

The soundtrack in this movie is probably my most favorite of any Russian movie I have seen. It actually works with the screen material and reminds me a lot of movies like Brat and Bumer. There are parts of the film that seem a bit unpolished and awkward, but overall, this is definitely one film to check out if you are into Russia films and culture.

"Sisters" is the directorial debut of the cult actor Sergey Bodrov, who tragically died on the set of the next film. A crime drama about how the mortal danger of a chase brings two sisters who hate each other. Another debut, acting and very successful, by Oksana Akinshina.

I really enjoyed this film. The story of two half sisters on the run from a crew of gangster kidnappers who must survive, bond and finally live one day at a time. I only wish American films were this meditative and watchable.

Syostry is a melancholic and touching movie, which gets quite close to the new Russian reality. The reality where a teenager girl dreams of becoming whether a sniper in Chechnya or a bodyguard for a new Russian (gangster).

Oksana Akinshina, who plays the older sister, has something inevitably tragic in her appearance (watch Lilja 4-ever by Lukas Moodysson). She reminded me Jean Seberg form the J.-L. Godard's Breathless and Juliette Biinoche from the L. Carax' Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. This movie is the second and last film shot by Sergei Bodrov Jr., who got a cult status (just like Victor Tsoy whose music he had used in Syostry), when he was reported missing in 2002 after the avalanche accident.

Directed by gangster movie heartthrob Sergei Bodrov Junior, this might be expected to be a shoot-'em up gangster caper movie. It isn't - in very Russian fashion, it's more about characters and issues than shooting, and while there are a couple of violent incidents, the pace is slow and the tone solemn.

The two sisters at the centre of the film - thirteen year old Sveta, poor and abandoned by her father, who longs to go off and be a sniper in the army, and spoilt eight-year old Dina, doted on by her gangster father - represent two very different aspects of modern Russia: the old, poor but moral; the young, cynical and money-obsessed. Sveta lives in a shabby home with her grandmother. Dina gets to live in a lavish apartment with their mother, and goes off to violin lessons. Not surprisingly, there's no love lost between the two.

But adversity, in the form of gang rivals on the search of some missing money and with few scruples about how to get their hands on it, throws the two together, plunging them into the Dickensian world of Russia's underground - dangerous and uncertain - and makes them value each other more than they ever have before. A couple of very naturalistic performances from the two makes this a fine, touching film.