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paulowry
Reviews
Dom durakov (2002)
House of Fools
For this film I think the question you have to ask yourself is this, do you think this is a war film or not? For me, this is not your typical war film. This film is more about the effects that the war between the Russians and the Chechens is having on the patients at a mental hospital. When the Chechens show up at the hospital they treat the patients with respect like when Janna goes down to the basement and the Chechen soldiers are shirtless, they all scramble to put clothes on. When the Russian soldiers show up however they treat the patients like they are less than human. Although the patients are crazy like in Janna's case where she thinks Bryan Adams is her husband, they seem to understand the gravity of the situation. I really enjoyed this film because the story was amazing along with the acting. Anyone who hasn't seen this film, I'd recommend very highly that they watch it.
Tsirk (1936)
Germans, good or bad?
This is definitely a propaganda film in Russia. I would say the main theme is unity. Mary is an American who is performing in a Russian circus. Throughout the film Mary starts to become more and more Russian as the time goes on. In the end Von Kneishitz (the German) is chasing after Mary's baby (who is half-black) and show the Russians that the star, Mary, whom they've all been cheering for is less than human so to speak. The Russians don't care, in fact they say, "Who cares?" Their culture is all one and there isn't any differences between the people. This film came out before WWII and definitely sets up the Germans as the bad guys. Overall this movie was entertaining. It's interesting to see a propaganda film but the storyline was quite weak.