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Reviews
Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
At first sight far-fetched, but ultimately deep
Upon finishing watching the movie, I could not help being a bit disappointed by its apparently excessively "ham-handed" satire and caricatural tone. It seemed a bit as lacking subtlety and simply playing on grotesquely absurd situation humor.
Yet upon reflection, I have come to realize the poetry of the parallels with mankind's evolution: the absurdity, or at least complete arbitrariness, of social conventions, hierarchy, and (economic) value and power structures. E.g., why are matches so invaluable on Pluck and the best reserve asset, why is a device classifying humans by the color of the diode they light up the basis of dominant-dominated relations, why is the alien language so precise concerning a few concepts and yet limited to "Koo" for the most part, why does that technologically cutting-edge civilization care so little about the esthetics and daily standards of living of its inhabitants, why is trousers' color the paramount social status-conferring item, why do Alpha's enlightened inhabitants consider that transforming some species against their will into plants is "just clearly better for them" ? All the answers boil down to cultural relativism: just as it is arbitrary that we have turned a pretty useless metal (gold) into the standard reserve asset, that ethnic discrimination still occurs on objectively completely arbitrary criteria, that our languages consist in complex and quite inefficient grammatical conventions, that our economies invest heavily into relatively futile sectors (like tourism, the space exploration, electronic devices, etc.) while leaving so much poverty out there, that people are incentivized to waste fortunes on quite futile items like cars or handbags to climb up the social ladder, or that some patronizing social engineers want to impose their master schemes against people's will for their idea of the greater good (like population control, gender ideology, eugenism, etc.)... Kin-Dza-Dza is an extreme illustration of how subjective, questionable, and arbitrary society is by confronting the viewer with a case of extreme alterity.
It is however also a tale of moving humanity, friendship, and responsibility vis-à-vis one's neighbor, with the two fellows willing to sacrifice their return on Earth several times to be solidary with the other one or even with their fellow not always so sympathetic alien companions. This might be the real, deep positive message of the movie: one might not be able to overturn an entire crooked social order, but each individual has the power to perform, here and now, acts of love and goodness towards one's neighbor. And that is what saving the world might actually consist in.
Fantastic, realistic, and natural acting amid unbelievably ridiculous situations. The actors are outstanding at showing a straight, serious face in the midst of ridicule.
Can be watched on Mosfilm's official Youtube channel in Russian with English subtitles. While I attempted to practice my Russian watching it, it might not be the most suitable for that purpose for non-natives because of the many made up words contained and pf the mediocre sound quality that let you wonder often what's just been said.
Granit (2021)
Linear and unsurprising plot but outstanding action genre
No major twists or deep philosophical are to be expected from the plot, which is fully manichean (although this dualism is realistic concerning the horrendous methods of the terrorists).
Nevertheless, the action scenes are beautiful and leave you stuck to the screen. A "pity" that only a single Russian dies in action, whereas in real life seven Wagner's servicemen passed away during the embush the film portrays; indeed, this makes the Russians look almost "invulnerable" amidst the firece fightings, which appears excessively unrealistic.
The main characters are moving and the acting excellent, with "Granit" himself deserving a special distinction for his special blend of Nordic-like detachment and genuine passion.
If you are a russophobe to whom only Americans or Westerners should be portrayed positively, do not waste your time on this film.
Turist (2021)
Quite thrilling action, documentary-style shooting interesting
The manicheism of the good vs. Evil sides is forgivable in this context, as the bandit-like warfare of the Central-African rebels is unfortunately all too realistic.
The action scenes are compelling and the choice of filming it almost from the perspective of a day-to-day documentary about the crisis makes it stand out.
Actors are very fine, especially the main ones.
At some points, I lost a bit track of the intertwined scenes and locations.
Not the most memorable movie ever but it gives you your fair share of thrills... of course, if you are open to the Russians not always being evil monsters.