It's a film based on the leader of a skinhead gang. And the shocking realisation that his father is a Jewish man.
The story is quite simple. Andrei Leonov our skinhead protagonist leading a massive gang of other skinheads to fight a terrifically large gain of biker punks*.
And he thinks he's doing a ''great'' thing keeping Russia together. And determining that only the 'true' people can dominate. That is until he discovers that his father is in fact not a Soviet War hero who died in Afghanistan but is a Bohemian Jew currently living in Moscow performing music for the wealthy Elite.
This puts me into an outrage now he wants to kill this man and try to disconnect himself from the ''tainted'' blood.
But upon confronting the man he discovers the Intrigue of reattaching with a father figure and overtime learns to tolerate and even respect him. The film ends with him and his father running off to Siberia on a train so they can escape the ideological Stranglehold of a divided Moscow.
There's a weird scene in the middle of the movie waer Andrei confronts one of his skinhead friends and tells him to beat the crap out of him. Even to kill him. Screaming that he has Jewish blood and he doesn't deserve to live. And his friend simply responds with: What do you mean? Ypu have Jewish blood, Everyone here has Jewish blood.
Really the story's not that complex. It's mainly about Redemption and character development with strange interaction between all these different destitute people. The real interest comes in the environment. This is 1992 Russia, post Perestroika post Soviet Union. The great Empire is demolished and the ones grand City of Moscow has been redused and riddled with turmoil . A sense of unease at what the future will-bring.
The entire film has a very dirty and rugged look to it. A look of what Russia was at the time and the people are unsure of how to act. There's one scene that almost brings me to tears. It's a group of all the Russians (Soviets Really) all gathered around in a freight train singing and dancing and being Mary. And then one of them starts singing an old Patriotic song and you can't help but feel moved by it it's a representation of a bygone age of the old Brezhnev era. What can never return.
There only one underlining theme in this movie that hasn't changed at all from the earliest of the Soviet Cinema. The excessive amount of drinking, the obsession with drinking, the making of your own drinks and the conversations that you're supposed to have while drinking. Alcohol is an often considered a stereotype of most European countries but there's something more real about it's in the former Soviet States.
The film itself is kind of sub-par. Some of the acting could be better some of the storyline could be tightened up. Although this is at a time of economic turmoil.
I want to write more about this movie. Go through all the individual scenes and character development, discuss the environment in better detail and try to understand some of the more subtle themes. But this is so mind-numbinglie depressing for me. It's the last death ballos of a former culture as it descends into chaos. On Top of anti-Semitism which is only going to grow and its intensity interconnect. next that with modern-day Russia and you have one very depressing movie.
Let's look at the life of the actress while we're at it. All these people were promised pensions and retirement plans guaranteed by the Soviet system. Although they wouldn't have been great they would have been something. The new Russian Federation did nothing for them a lot of these people ended up homeless with no jobs and no prospects the former entertainers of an entire country. Many would die from alcoholism. Some of this film but only have a few more years to go.
*Today these Berry biker Punk's work for the government known by most of Eastern Europe as Putin's flunkies.
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