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Reviews
Vse umrut a ya ostanus (2008)
Everybody Dies but Me
"Everybody dies but me. Go **** yourself!" - would YOU ever dare to say this phrase to your parents? If YOU would not, then the film Everybody dies but me directed by Valeriya Gai Germanika is really worth watching for YOU. If YOU would, then it is much more than worth watching, it is worth analyzing for YOU. The process of growing up is crucially important for both parents and children, which is dramatically portrayed in the film. This work can be used as a source for analyzing the necessity to non-childfree people pay attention to their children and to minimize the mistakes during this period of misunderstandings. By mentioning the artificial detachment from the real world, the film draws attention to the issues that exist in reality: the attempts of kids like Zhanna (Agniia Kuznetsova), Vika (Ol'ga Shuvalova) and Katia (Polina Filonenko) to be adults through drinking, talking about sex and suffering from these desires afterwards which led them to unconsciousness, rape and betrayal; the useless attempts of adults like the girls' parents to control their kids, by violently suppressing them, beating and then falling at the girls' feet after realizing that their children need support OR A PROPER UPBRINGING instead. Such a provocative approach to the topics not openly discussed in the post-Soviet countries like parent-child relationships, reality of growing up, brought several awards to the director of the film, including Cannes Film Festival "Prix Regards Jeune - Young cinematographer" award (2008) and Nika Award nominated for "Young Talent Discovery of the Year" (2009) IMDB. Various messages sent by Gai Germanika can provoke the emergence of the flashbacks to real life in the mind of the viewer, just like it happened in my head. The film woke up the memories of being a child and an "observer" of the situations that the main heroines Zhanna, Vika and Katya went through. When I was a child, I was happy to meet people whom I did not think of until watching this film. And I am now happy that the films like Everybody Dies but Me give the viewer a chance to draw the parallels with the reality of people who had been going through similar situations in their life. I remember a 14-year-old girl that was betrayed by her boyfriend, suffered from this as an immature child, in the mean time trying to hide more behind that mask of suffering from betrayal. When I asked her what the problem was, she asked me to follow her to a place where no one would see us and showed me a lump of breast cancer that she could not even tell her parents about. Another girl Galia living in the dormitory for low-income people was misguided by constant shifts between the abuse and sudden support of her parents, in the same way as Vika was. Undoubtedly, we all have memories that our consciousness wants to bury inside, however, this film's plot will make you dig them up and reanalyze it as a direct observer of the events happening with the heroines. The lack of special effects in the shooting and the montage of the film makes the viewer feel as if he is standing near the girls, looking at them but just not able to stop them from rash decisions that the girls' parents should have prevented. "Everybody dies but me. MOM, WHAT?!" The way the girls treat their parents can result in unpleasant feelings towards them, however, this behaviour can also be perceived as a common issue among various generations. The film demonstrates complete misunderstanding between Generation X, Y and Z, by showing their relationship with each other through the dialogues emerging due to the disco that the girls wanted to attend so much:
- "Mom, why don't you go to hell? Dad, why don't you go to hell? I ****ed it all!"
- "We still love you very much."
- "But I don't!!!"
Brat 2 (2000)
Brother 2: Where is the power?
"Where is the power, viewer? In the truth or in the money?" - Is there a right answer to this question? There is no guarantee that you will find it, but you can try by watching one of Alexei Balabanov's masterpiece "Brother 2", which provides the viewer with a thought-provoking scenario by drawing attention to the standoff between the truth and the money. Not surprisingly just after the release, the film was nominated on "Kinotavr" in 2000 as the events happening with the main hero Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov) depict the situation before the transition of power from the ex-president Boris Elcin to Vladimir Putin in 1999 (Wines, 2000). The society was divided into two types:
1) the negative heroes like the ruler of the bank Valentin Belkin (Sergei Makoveckii) having connections with the American businessman Mennis (Gary Houston) who together killed the Russian hockey-player's Dmitrii Gromov (Alexander Dem'ianenko) twin brother for the money
2) the positive heroes like Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov) acting for the sake of justice, friendship, patriotism and, ironically, money too.
«In the truth?»
Comparing this fantastic film with its first part "Brother", "Brother 2" is an equally impressive film because they both allow the viewer to dive into those times and both arise the question of adherence to the truth. The fact that makes the second film more informative is that Alexei Balabanov now also questions the truth about Russians through the difference between the perception of the Russian people in Russia and in America, which a non-russian speaking person might not notice immediately. "I am with you. Russians do not leave each other on war!" vs "Another goat from Russia.". Using this common idea of "We, Russians will never lie to to each other", a non-russian man sold a bad-quality car to Danila in America, undermining this notion of Russian representation too. At the very first sight Danila Bagrov seems to be the representation of the desire to demonstrate true Russians as sincere, fair, better people. He helps Russians who according to his view deserve help and face unfair destiny, like his own brother living in a countryside, brothers Gromovy (Alexander Dem'ianenko) losing money or the Russian prostitute Merilin-Dasha (Dar'ia Iurgens) working for American souteneur. Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov) is an embodiment of a positive hero having good intentions to support others and get the justice. But what is justice for him? Unjustly deal with others and kill those who acted unjustly towards Russian people.
«Or in the money?»
The justice that the main hero tries to embody by helping the ones and hurting the others simultaneously is full of controversy, because the only difference between him and other criminals is that he has some good initial intention to help someone. However, during this process of killing without thinking Danila Bodrov transforms into the same faithless criminal acting for the profit. Every act of justice and getting to the truth eventually leads to the chase for money in case of Danila (Sergei Bodrov). If so, perhaps, the power is actually in the hands of the material things like money, not in the truth like Danila stated in the film once. Running from criminals, who might also have some initiative to achieve justice, and chasing other criminals, the main hero does not notice how he is changing too. Just like in Victor Pelevin's "Generation P", Vavilen Tatarskii becomes the person he at first was not willing to become, but in the end he is just like any other person seeking for money and lying to employers with the purpose of getting more and more profit (Pelevin, 2011). The shooting itself is quite impressive and contains many colourful and picturesque moments grabbing the attention of the viewer in both countries, but the American views had more visual details like signboards and scenes making it possible for a person to sink into the atmosphere of those times and to realize that the life with money is much better and more pleasant, e.g. sitting in bars like rich Ukranians, having security like businessmen, working on the TV-show like Lisa Jeffry and having anything you need. So, maybe the power is in the money indeed? The director of the film gives us an idea for an analysis, because chasing personal interests, we, ourselves have no time to think about the individuals we are becoming during the journey of getting to a desired destination.
«Maybe in both?»
As Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov) is returning home after helping the hockey-player (Alexander Dem'ianenko), taking prostitute Dasha (Dar'ia Iurgens) and the money with him, the viewer might ask himself: "Maybe the power is in both?". Perhaps, the power can be reached by the perfect combination of the truth and the money? Perhaps, you can kill almost anyone if you are doing it for the good, like Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov) did?
"So, where is the power, viewer? In the truth or in the money?"
Perhaps, the answer is hidden in "Brother 2"...