The phenomenon of the boy: the hidden reasons for the success of the main series of the year became clear

When the Soviet Union collapsed, many things suddenly lost quality. One of them is cinema. Russian cinema of the 90s and 2000s, with rare exceptions, was monstrous. The actors – often even the very same Soviet ones – gave out forced hackwork, eminent directors presented a senile parody of themselves, the scriptwriters openly treated the audience for fools, ready to swallow absurdity. Moreover, this was not an inexorable fate, predestination – after all, there were exceptions! But this dragged on for more than two decades. And then suddenly meaningful plots, decent acting, and shameless directorial work began to return.

And now we have become accustomed to the fact that “our people have learned to make films again.” Yes, we learned again, more and more often and better. Therefore, when I say that the new series “A Boy’s Word: Blood on the Asphalt” is very good, I do not mean that it is good “against the backdrop of nineties cinema” – no, it is an outstanding phenomenon even against the good background of the last decade.

I’ll say right away: the calls to ban “The Boy’s Word”, heard in bureaucratic circles, seem to me to be utter stupidity (conscious sabotage is less likely; most likely, those who banned it didn’t even watch it). This is my value judgment, and now I will reveal the reasons for it.

First of all, in “The Boy’s Word” there is no romanticization of street gangs. None at all. But there are such heartbreaking moments when you literally want to howl out loud with pity for these families. That’s right: to families. Not only for children. But first of all, to the grandmother, who trudges, wrapped in a shawl, clutching a can of broth, to an inconspicuous building with a sign “Morgue”. The viewer can already guess what will happen now. But she, this funny, absurd old lady, doesn’t realize it yet. Watch this movie with your children, and if children feel even for a minute what excruciating, unbearable pain they can inflict on their adults, then “The Boy’s Word” is a very good movie.

There is no romanticization there. Yes, the boys are shown not so much as bad – an unbiased look can see that these are not bad children, but as if dislocated. You look at him and don’t really understand why he does this. After all, you can “be good”, you can “tell your mother”, you can find good, correct solutions. And they will not look for good solutions – these not bad, but dislocated children will do God knows what even out of nowhere, even when it was possible (as it seems) to resist easily; and you won’t understand exactly why they do this, but you will know for sure: yes, this happens. Recognizable… Oh, how recognizable it all is! And that’s why “The Boy’s Word” is also a very good movie.

In places, with its unnecessary but inevitable slide into darkness (the heroes can make the right decisions, but do not make them), it is reminiscent of the creepy “Requiem for a Dream.” If you think that “Requiem for a Dream” is a romanticization of drugs, then perhaps you shouldn’t be allowed near the screen for a cannon shot.

But it’s not only that. The point is also that these children are not bad, even “mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts” – in fact, they are cowards. Yes, these tough guys, who steadfastly endure pain and enthusiastically punch them in the face at any hint of a quarrel, are still cowards. Afraid to tell the truth to their closest and dearest people, they pile up mountains of incredible and ridiculous lies. Afraid of appearing in an unfavorable light “in front of the boys,” they commit acts that have no honor. For the time being, they try to pretend that they are only interested in honor – that of a boy. But the film shows well that it ends in a shameful, pathetic and disgusting way.

In this sense, the key plot is the story of the raped girl. The boys know that violence was committed against her (and because she acted in their interests), but the boys’ concepts and the label “slut” are more important to them than reason, justice, and honor. More precisely, they replace reason, justice and honor with them. Not even out of conscious cruelty, no, but out of some kind of impenetrable stupidity, mixed with “concepts,” they begin persecution. Girls also readily participate in this – they have also learned boyish concepts. But the most depressing thing is that adults are also involved in this.

The adults in the film are mainly busy trying not to notice the problem, and if they notice, then somehow hush it up. They have rational justifications, which are easy for us to understand. But that doesn’t help. The connection between adults and children is broken. Children do not understand adults and do not trust them. Adults do not understand children and do not know how to express their feelings towards them. Some do not seek protection, others cannot give it.

The film features two adults who occupy an intermediate position between two torn worlds. This is, firstly, Vova Adidas – already, in essence, a grown man who fought in Afghanistan, who has a more mature understanding of honor and responsibility, but in terms of mental development he is still the same kid. Slowly, with difficulty, it dawns on him that “we are doing the wrong thing.” And secondly, police major Ildar Yunusovich. This is yesterday’s boy, who managed to overcome an extremely traumatic period and grow up. He knows the boys, but therefore he knows how little can be done. In the end, he just does his job. There is a great moment when he, tastefully exhaling tobacco smoke right into the nose of the greyhound gopnik, gives him “the boy’s word” and you can see how much pleasure this gives him.

We can talk for a long time about how the actors perform in this film. They play wonderfully, and it’s as if they don’t even play at all. (I have some doubts about the director’s wife, but she generally has a specific role.) Overall, this is pure delight. Moreover, both adult actors and children are magnificent. Why earlier, even ten years ago, children in Russian cinema were cardboard, unconvincing, dull, and now there is such an extravaganza of talent, I don’t know. I simply accept it with gratitude. Actors known and unknown, in leading roles and episodes – they are all great. And all the roles are amazingly recognizable.

By the way, isn’t this the real reason why attempts to ban the series immediately began, and attempts with the participation of communists? The atmosphere of the USSR on its last legs is truly recreated in the film with outstanding accuracy. But I would like to say a big thank you to its creators for not making a pretentious, symbolic nonsense like “Cargo 200.” Thank you guys for not doing this. Whatever, this was our life, in which people also wanted to be happy. Thank you for respecting this wish.

…I praise “The Boy’s Word” and keep in mind all the time that the film is not finished yet. The latest episode hasn’t aired yet, and anything could happen. Anything to cancel out my enthusiasm. Especially considering that the creators of the series have already begun to bend to the wishes (or demands?) of the prohibitionists. It will be even worse if they make a sequel – this is almost never good, and commercial cinema dictates: come on, come on… But now I’ll try not to think about it. An extraordinary phenomenon has taken place in Russian cinema, for which I congratulate us.