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As Hollywood Stumbles,New Russian Films Celebrated in Berlin
 | | In der Klemme/In The VIce (Walerij Todorowskij, 2007) |
Relations between Moscow and Berlin got even warmer as winter drew in with the opening on Friday Nov 30th at the Kino International of the 3rd Russian Film Festival, Berlin A generous applause rang through the auditorium as the line of proud filmmakers - producers, writers, and actors - made their way to their front-row seats at the beginning of a week’s presentations. The festival, organised by Interfest and sponsored by Gazprom, features nine contemporary films to be showcased at the Kino Arsenal, Potsdammerstrase, and the Russian House of Culture in Friedrichstrasse, Berlin Mitte (Nov 30th - Dec, 5th 2007).
 | | The Father (Dir, Ivan, Solowow, 2007) |
Tonight’s showcase opener featured the latest film from Director Walerij Todorowski’s. In Der Klemme/In The Vice (col, 126 min). His rites of passage tale centers on Denis (Maxim Matweew), a talented disc jockey who aims towards a big music success in Moscow. His noble aim is compromised through petty crime that quickly descends into a tortured moral entanglement with a local drug boss Werner/Fedor Bondarchuk.
As Matweew himself noted after the showing, the film has quickly resonated with the youth audiences in Moscow, and indeed, for a Western audience, its account of torn allegiances between good and evil - young Denis must also negotiate with the circling police detective (Alexej Serebrjakov) - might echo Scorsese’s The Departed (2006). Its one crucial failing, though, is in the weak characterization of the central character - and in following his extended oscillation between contesting temptations where he can only watch, listen and suffer. His girl leaves, he gets to pull a trigger, and jumps to his own beat. The script failure isn’t helped by the directorial choice to surround Matweew (this is his first film) with excellent performances from the likes of Bondarchuk whose strength as an actor - and whose iconic presence - soon places his more twisted character, Werner, at the fascinating and dangerous centre of the story.  | | Russian Games (Dir, Pavel Tschuchraj, 2007) |
By comparison, Denis/Matweew can only become an anguished on-looker only to escape into his headphones where, despite the impassioned work of director Todrorowski, no film audience can really go. For all its directorial flamboyance and surface indications to the contrary, In Der Klemme emerges in its core as a very Russian story - Kazamrarov Goes Clubbing, if you like.
Which makes In Der Klemme/In the Vice (2007) a very telling film with which to begin a Film Festival as organised by Interfest producer Renat Dawletetjaow and for whom the “…contents of modern film art are a new reality feeling, bringing an immediate closeness with the problems in society. Courage in the choice of formats, deconstructions of the old established clichés. The aim of our film week is to give our film authors the possibility to exchange creative ideas and to present the works to the German audience.”
Other titles in the festival include: Zwei in Einem/Two In One (D. Kira Muratova); Reise Mit Haustieren/Journey With House Animals (D. Vera Storoschewa); Russisches Speil/Russian Game (D. Pavel Tschuchraj); Der Vater/The Father (D. Ivan Solowow); Kuka (D. Jaroslaw Tschewaschevskij); Tanker Tango (D. Bachtijar Chudojnasarow); Die Versuchung/The Temptation (D. Sergej Aschkenazy). CODA With thanks to Dr. Diana A. Taylor for assistance in Festival accreditation and translations across German and Russian. |
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