a piece of art :)

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2015)

This film is "propaganda", it does not serve anti-Russian or pro- Russian propaganda it describes propaganda itself, it describes how propaganda works on the people- how it affects society..I love that somebody decided do to give that much money to fund an movie that stands for art rather than box-office.
This movie is not about Russia it is not about criminals it is not about regime, it is not about history..it is about society, about people, about now. This film is about what society is and what makes it run. The latter is projected all over the place. The plot and the quasi-historical events are just a tool- a cover for the magic of the seventh art. If you abstract yourself from the names of the actors, from the prejudices. If you watch the movie not simply rate it, you will experience the art not simply consume it.
The society(the paradise) is developed really well here, people that read the books point out the the movie is a pale adaptation on them, because it lacks the in-depth development of the characters, but the movie is not about the characters it is about what ties them together, about the pressure that builds up the bonds- and this is how you describe society. This bond is described in most environments- the army, the police, the family, the friend circle, and the neighborhood. All those environments are put under pressure- the pressure resulting from the "paradise" itself. In the opening scenes you are shown that you can't have stolen watches on the photo with the flag, but everybody knows about that even though the truth gets twisted over time. Later in the movie this is shown and that is where the regime metaphor and the cold-war-mentality break apart for me...there are no crimes in paradise, but paradise is never about truth. Paradise is what ones tricks him/herself believing in, denying the truth about the surrounding, because you know if I live in the paradise everything else must be bad, right?
I can write a lot more for this movie, I watched it yesterday, and it took me some time to realize the depth, the scale, the complexity and the beauty of it. There are no heroes, there are no villains, there are different people, some of them abuse the "paradise", some of them threaten it, some of them simply need it, and some protect it. There is always a bond however, there is always the weak that is driven by the fear of staying behind, thus abusing that bond and the strong that is driven by the responsibility that comes with the understanding of the bond. It is interesting how the bad and the good gets diffused in multiple characters- both the killer and the coward officer are driven by their weakness, the main character and the police chief are driven by their strength, their responsibility. I actually made involuntary relation between the main character and an Italian mobster.
The movie is so deep so complex, so real as a society can be. It is art and again you do not consume it, you do experience it. So to all that haven't watched it- do it, experience it. I believe it was never meant to be experienced on a big screen, but at home..for me it is too intimate- it explores truths that are being suppressed by society itself, turned into propaganda, a fictional paradise at the cost of the others. The characters are showing so much control over themselves but at the same time there are so many feelings, so strong bonds between them. It all feels so down to earth, so up to the questions forwarded to the viewer instead of a flashy marketing trick.
It is a rare bird nowadays when the movies are more a consumer product than art. Unlike a product that is flashy, loud and entertaining, a product that lasts for half an hour, this movie starts happening after you watch it, it develops in you, within the surrounding. The last 15 minutes that are crucial for the impression one gets from any movie, are not encoded in the movie itself, they are passed on to the viewer. Those same lasting 15 minutes are replaces with simple questions. Those questions are not new, we are experiencing forms of those in our everyday life reading/commenting on topics like government surveillance, leaked secret document, political and geopolitical conflicts etc. Questions that this piece of art boils down to the existence of/in a paradise- I am living in one? Is it real? What is the cost of it? Who pays that cost? Who forces them to pay?