Bike ride from reality – Newspaper Kommersant No. 39 (7484) dated 03/09/2023

Anton Maslov’s road movie “The Ride”, based on the true story of blogger Anna Smolina, who in 2017, together with her beloved dachshund, rode a bicycle through all of Russia, is being released. Film, according to Julia Shagelman, reflects the emerging trend in Russian cinema: to send the audience along with the characters to hell and disconnect from the pressing worries and problems of real life.

Seven years ago, Anna Smolina was one of the numerous plankton microorganisms inhabiting the Moscow City office space. As usual, even the management of a department in some corporation and a good salary categorically did not bring her happiness, so she left her job and organized her own business – she opened an SMM agency. However, this did not help to cope with the feeling of dissatisfaction with life. Then she left everything and, starting from her native Naberezhnye Chelny, went on a bicycle across Russia, taking with her a sick dog Kapa, ​​whom veterinarians predicted an imminent death from cancer. The goal was Magadan and a meeting with the mother living there, whom Anna had not seen for many years. She chronicled her journey on social networks, and then, on the basis of these posts, she successfully published a book called “Why sit at home?”, The money for the publication of which she raised through crowdfunding.

Everything is in the best Hollywood traditions: a fresh bestseller (the book turned out to be so successful that two more sequels later came out) formed the basis of the film directed by Anton Maslov. Prior to that, he mainly filmed TV series – from the not-so-successful Russian remake of Shameless (2017) to the most popular Vampires of the Middle Band (coming out in 2021). Judging by the latter, the director has a good idea of ​​what the so-called general audience needs, as well as the scriptwriters who came with him from streaming, of whom there are as many as five in the film: a movie with likeable characters and circumstances that are at the same time specific enough to be recognizable, and slightly fantastical to provide 110 minutes of pleasant escapism.

Of course, both the heroine and her story on the screen have undergone some glamorization – to the greatest extent this affected Capa’s dachshund, who is cheerful and healthy in the film, although she does not have much screen time, and sometimes the authors seem to forget about her at all . Anya Smolina (Olga Lerman) works here as an SMM manager for a certain social media star (Maria Gorban, working out the “stupid blonde” archetype), who, as in “The Devil Wears Prada”, requires her to be in touch 24/7, makes ridiculous requests and now and then threatened with dismissal. The heroine earns enough money to celebrate her 30th birthday in an expensive restaurant, but not to rent an apartment alone – she lives with a neighbor (Alina Alekseeva). And with all the markers of a completely successful Moscow life, Anya is very lonely – she broke up with her boyfriend (Dmitry Chebotarev) because of his betrayal, and no one comes to her birthday, so she has to celebrate it in the company of an unexpectedly appeared guest worker courier (Askar Ilyasov).

The last straw for a girl going through an existential crisis is the memories of her mother (Elena Yakovleva), with whom she quarreled many years ago and who appears to her in the form of a reproachful ghost, condemning her lifestyle, work, character and everything else. Perhaps staying away from such a parent was the most reasonable decision, but Anya decides to restore broken ties, takes Kapa in an armful, saddles a bicycle that was gathering dust in the corner and goes to Nizhny Novgorod, where her mother lives. The road is long, so before inevitably understanding a lot about both her mother and herself, the heroine meets many adventures in her native expanses (in the role of native expanses of the sample of a prosperous 2017 – the same expanses, but already in 2022).

“The Traveler” is in many ways reminiscent of Ivan Sosnin’s film “Far Close” released last year, and not only because in both films the characters at the end of the journey are waiting for the heroine Elena Yakovleva. And there, and there, Russian roads appear at their best (which is greatly facilitated by the fact that this is happening in the summer), and the gap between generations turns out to be patched to everyone’s joy. Anton Maslov, however, is preparing for Anya several not the most pleasant incidents, and among those with whom her path crosses, villains also come across. But she gets out of each such situation without much harm (although one episode has to be left without an outcome for this, simply by going into a blackout), and there are still more good people around her. At the same time, you can’t reproach the authors of the film for special varnishing of reality – they quite honestly follow the canvas given by the original source, and even a meeting with a dream man (Viktor Khorinyak), which seems possible only in a rom-com, really happened. However, when watching the film, there is a relentless desire not only to plan a route for the next vacation, but also to live in that magical land where its characters live.