If youth could – Newspaper Kommersant No. 143 (7344) of 08/09/2022

In Vyborg, the XXX festival of Russian cinema “Window to Europe” continues, within the framework of which the premieres of the debut films of young domestic directors are held. About the first half of the competition program of feature films tells Yulia Shagelman.

Competitive screenings opened with a picture Alisa Erokhina “On the Eve”. Its main character Max (Artem Yakovlev) is a restless 16-year-old guy who is not needed by anyone, even his own parents. He roams the streets of St. Petersburg, steals little things in shops, hangs out in some landfill with a girl (Veronika Zhukova), who also does not feel much emotional attachment to him, and tries to reach out to his father (Vladimir Seleznev), who has long had a different family . However, attempts to talk, even on the phone, are met with excuses. Having established surveillance for his father, Max finds out that he has a mistress (Daria Ekamasova), and decides to kill her – not so much out of jealousy or revenge, but in order to commit at least some act. However, she also turns out to be as lonely and unsettled as a teenager lost in adult life, and in the end, each character again finds herself at the same point as at the beginning of the film.

“1000 cheap lighters” Irina Obidova – another story about teenagers who are not heard by adults. Artem (Pavel Chernyshev) and Kostya (Nikita Plahotniuc) study at a technical school and stay away from their classmates. But if the first, a talented chemist, strove to be an outsider, then the second, plump and red-haired, did not choose such a fate. Therefore, when, after another trick at the OBZh lesson, the directorate puts the guys on the list of troublemakers of the local peace, Kostya greedily grabs onto the popularity that has fallen on him. And when it dries up, he decides to bring to the technical school and really blow up a bomb made by a friend. However, ironically, even the main character of the film is not him, but Artyom, and the main storyline here is Artyom’s relationship with the major girl Kira (Elizaveta Kononova). Alas, “1000 cheap lighters”, filmed by young people and about young people, seems to be an artificial and fake construction, invented by people who have long forgotten their own youth.

Explosions thunder and “Mittelmarche”, but here, fortunately, there are no casualties: in this way, Mitya (Ivan Zlobin), who has just turned eighteen, draws attention to the architectural monuments that they want to demolish in his native St. Petersburg. His father died protecting one of the city buildings from destruction, and since then Mitya has been silent. His grandmother (Era Ziganshina) decides to get her grandson out of this state, to shake him up by hiring an adventurer with no specific occupation (Ilya Del), who, as a bonus, also becomes Mitya’s rival in love with the young beauty Polina (Tina Stoyilkovich). Producer Sofia Meledina – a student of Alexei Uchitel, and her debut work is a clear attempt to film a sort of “Walk 20 years later.” But in 2022, all those St. Petersburg nighttime runs, cute hooliganism, animated inserts and worn-out references to the Gang of Outsiders, placed in beautiful timelessness, look desperately outdated.

The complete opposite of this girlish needlework – “Express” Ruslan Bratova boyish tragicomedy in the spirit of the Coen brothers, which takes place in Cherkessk.

Sasha Soslanov, nicknamed Sos (Lev Zulkarnaev), would easily fit into the gallery of Cohen’s cheerful idiots: it’s as if nothing can bring him out of balance – neither expulsion from the hostel of the university, nor the threat of expulsion, nor parting with his girlfriend, nor the fact that in bookmaker, where he is a regular, bets from him are no longer accepted.

Sos persuades a passer-by (Pavel Vorozhtsov) to place an Express bet on eight sporting events for a small fee, which, if won, should bring a million. Oddly enough, the teams he bet on really win one after another, but here’s the bad luck – Sos managed to lose the winning card. He goes in search of her, meeting a crowd of colorful characters, now and then getting into new troubles, but still maintaining good spirits. The film itself appears just as peppy, in which the unkempt local texture and the accuracy of the characters are combined with a clear rhythm that does not let the story stall for a minute.

Movie Tamara Dondurey “Nearby” differs only in that its main character is a woman (which, oddly enough, is a rarity for the Vyborg competition, where more than half of the films are staged by women directors). In addition, Kira (Ekaterina Yermishina) has already crossed the 30-year mark, and her problems are quite adult. At work in an architectural bureau, she has to defend her project, which seems too complicated and costly to customers and colleagues. Everything is not easy for Kira already: she is pregnant, but she is not sure that she wants to give birth from Ivan (Ilya Malanin), with whom they have been together for a long time, but everything in their life is somehow temporary – rented apartments, cars from car sharing, even dogs and those strangers (Ivan trains them to be guides for the blind and takes them home for the duration of training). This fragile existence is finally broken due to a sudden tragedy, and now Kira has to collect a new life from the fragments – or at least its appearance. The film turned out to be thin and delicate – in places, perhaps even too much. At times it seems alienated, overly adjusted in terms of color and certainly referring to times gone forever, although quite recent (its premiere took place in early February this year at the festival in Rotterdam). However, even if it does not sound loud, it has a distinct author’s intonation.