I saw this title yesterday, on a film festival in Kyiv. I gotta admit, as Ukrainian, this movie was plain boring. I mean I know what I was signing up for anyway - Indie films with no Hollywood patterns - cool. But this was just too realistically gray and dull for a viewer who has been living in a post-Soviet country.
You get to see an apathetic protagonist with a classic Russian chav attitude (save the utmost pathetic image of a drunk, thank you very much). Vytas is a struggling mechanic who just lost his job. With a help of the state, he tries to land a job as a mechanic yet again. However, given the chance, Vytas flunks it because he has a very dry personality - he reveals no hobbies and interests (except for the formulaic "sports") or rather he decides to hide that his hobbies include drinking beer with classmates on the streets (again, a very common activity for post-Soviet countries).
But then things spice up with an affair. Vytas spends time with his new female friend who trimmed his hair that one time, which led to her assistance with a business outfit at a clothes store. He then takes her for a few walks, sometimes alcohol-included. Vytas has a very closed personality. He is not straightforward with his feelings. Instead of inviting his new love interest to a walk with a chat, he chooses a silly reason - trimming his barely visible hair while slipping the fact that he was not accepted for a job. He then thanks her for a what-is-hard-to-call-a-trim-at-all.
You might think Vytas would up his game with a new love interest but no. He is so miserable that after announcing to his wife that he is leaving her, he unsuccessfully tries to move in to the hairdresser's apartment. He probably didn't even consider the fact that she lives with her parents. The result? He drinks a tea with her in silence and then leaves her. No chat about his feelings, no revelations, just a visualized part of his misery. I could only wonder how he got married in the first place.
Between these colorless drama episodes, there is a subplot about a guy who allegedly saw Jesus on the wall. The best friend of Vytas is trying to find the guy. Upon seeing the scene where the best friend serves a ceremonial role in church, you might get an idea that he wants too see Jesus for himself. Nope, his first reaction when he finally found the guy was to beat him up on the ground (Christian, am I rye?). A scene later, Vytas, his friend, and the "psycho" meet at that very Jesus wall, with no Jesus in sight. The end.
While the summary of a film suggests there is a theme of success and failures, I, for one, think The Saint was about the concepts of hope, faith, and miracles. Vytas believed he would land a job, he also hoped to start a new relationship, and he probably expected Jesus to turn up on that wall. He put his faith into these things instead of applying the efforts, thus failing at each "challenge". You can spot the pattern of expecting a miracle this way: Vytas signed up for a job searching list, expecting a job to find him; Vytas started spending time with a female, expecting her to show her feelings to him; Vytas looked at the wall expecting Jesus. This whole time he was just standing there and expecting something to happen. It didn't.
As a side note, the absence of Christ on the wall put Vytas back to reality because he realized how meaningless his attempts at getting a job and getting laid were. Just like religion gives people hope and a sense of Apophenia, Vytas thought of the new job and a new lover as a game-changer in his life but these things were not special, as the wall implies so.
Personally, I think a viewer from Western culture would appreciate this film more than I did because they'd get an insight into the life of generic civilians from post-Soviet countries. A lot of people from these states continue to live the lives illustrated in the movie to this day, that I can tell.
You get to see an apathetic protagonist with a classic Russian chav attitude (save the utmost pathetic image of a drunk, thank you very much). Vytas is a struggling mechanic who just lost his job. With a help of the state, he tries to land a job as a mechanic yet again. However, given the chance, Vytas flunks it because he has a very dry personality - he reveals no hobbies and interests (except for the formulaic "sports") or rather he decides to hide that his hobbies include drinking beer with classmates on the streets (again, a very common activity for post-Soviet countries).
But then things spice up with an affair. Vytas spends time with his new female friend who trimmed his hair that one time, which led to her assistance with a business outfit at a clothes store. He then takes her for a few walks, sometimes alcohol-included. Vytas has a very closed personality. He is not straightforward with his feelings. Instead of inviting his new love interest to a walk with a chat, he chooses a silly reason - trimming his barely visible hair while slipping the fact that he was not accepted for a job. He then thanks her for a what-is-hard-to-call-a-trim-at-all.
You might think Vytas would up his game with a new love interest but no. He is so miserable that after announcing to his wife that he is leaving her, he unsuccessfully tries to move in to the hairdresser's apartment. He probably didn't even consider the fact that she lives with her parents. The result? He drinks a tea with her in silence and then leaves her. No chat about his feelings, no revelations, just a visualized part of his misery. I could only wonder how he got married in the first place.
Between these colorless drama episodes, there is a subplot about a guy who allegedly saw Jesus on the wall. The best friend of Vytas is trying to find the guy. Upon seeing the scene where the best friend serves a ceremonial role in church, you might get an idea that he wants too see Jesus for himself. Nope, his first reaction when he finally found the guy was to beat him up on the ground (Christian, am I rye?). A scene later, Vytas, his friend, and the "psycho" meet at that very Jesus wall, with no Jesus in sight. The end.
While the summary of a film suggests there is a theme of success and failures, I, for one, think The Saint was about the concepts of hope, faith, and miracles. Vytas believed he would land a job, he also hoped to start a new relationship, and he probably expected Jesus to turn up on that wall. He put his faith into these things instead of applying the efforts, thus failing at each "challenge". You can spot the pattern of expecting a miracle this way: Vytas signed up for a job searching list, expecting a job to find him; Vytas started spending time with a female, expecting her to show her feelings to him; Vytas looked at the wall expecting Jesus. This whole time he was just standing there and expecting something to happen. It didn't.
As a side note, the absence of Christ on the wall put Vytas back to reality because he realized how meaningless his attempts at getting a job and getting laid were. Just like religion gives people hope and a sense of Apophenia, Vytas thought of the new job and a new lover as a game-changer in his life but these things were not special, as the wall implies so.
Personally, I think a viewer from Western culture would appreciate this film more than I did because they'd get an insight into the life of generic civilians from post-Soviet countries. A lot of people from these states continue to live the lives illustrated in the movie to this day, that I can tell.
