"Loaf" escapes from the Outskirts
On June 12, Russia Day, the premiere of the film “Donbass. Outskirts", filmed by director Renat Davletyarov based on real events and scripted by Alexei Timoshkin.
The film was unexpected for several reasons.
Apart from two unnoticed films of 2015, Davletyarov’s film should be considered the first serious work on the topic of the urgent war in Donbass for Russian viewers.
There was some doubt about the identity of the director. Previously, Davletyarov was noted as the author of two, to put it mildly, controversial films: an unsuccessful and unnecessary remake of the military classic “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” and the chaotic thriller “Pure Art”.
Therefore, before watching a film on such a painful topic as the protracted war in Donbass, my first thought was: can a director of passable and unattractive films make a film that requires a careful and very delicate approach to the material?
It should be admitted: the film “Donbass. Outskirts" turned out to be solid, interesting and at the same time humane. A film that you don’t often see on screens. With rough edges and some shortcomings, which, however, do not spoil the overall viewing experience.
The film takes place in the summer of 2014 in the village of Marinka, but not in the one on the outskirts of Donetsk, but “somewhere in the Donbass.” The war drives the most diverse people into the basement: the militia Anatoly, the soldier-driver of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrey, the shell-shocked boy Vitya, the “separatist” Tatyana, two volunteers - Bandera Oksana, who came in large numbers to “kill the separatists” and the clearly Maidan “capital thing” Natalya, as well as a difficult intellectual from the Ukrainian hinterland by the name of Kolosovsky, looking for his missing son, a soldier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Around their shelter, shells are exploding, everything is on fire, corpses are lying around, and a “cleansing” is looming like a sword of Damocles, during which a grenade first flies into the basement, and then the questions are asked: “Are there any people here?”
The horrors of war force enemies to gradually get used to each other and begin to jointly solve issues of survival: how to get water, food, medicine. Along the way, a detective intrigue arises: one of the people hiding in the basement is an SBU killer, who must one day “shoot” like a sacramental gun hanging on the wall during the course of the play.
In general, the viewer is invited to watch a good chamber psychological thriller, unfolding against the backdrop of war, with good direction, acting and camera work.
I would like to especially emphasize the work of the cameraman: the picture turned out to be impeccable, and in addition, the film skillfully used documentary materials from famous military officers, like Graham Philips.
One cannot agree with all the director's interpretations in the film. For example, the authors could have made less use of the “universal human” component, when the militia and the sushnik sing in chorus the song “Dark Mounds Are Sleeping,” and the fierce Banderaite experiences the collapse of his own ideals, seeing with his own eyes the works of his “brothers.”
The message itself is not bad, but it is implemented in the film in a painfully straightforward manner.
The Ukrainian surname Tkachenko of the militia and the Russian surname Sokolov of the Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier look like an obvious cliche. Or: one son is for Euromaidan, the other is for Novorossiya from his grandfather, a front-line soldier of the Great Patriotic War.
And that's what's important. Despite the fact that the film’s authors spare no expense in depicting Bandera’s punitive forces, Davletyarov’s film, unlike Ukrainian film propaganda about “cyborgs” and other Nazi bastards, does not dehumanize the opponents of Novorossiya, although it does not justify them at all. The fact that the filmmakers managed to walk the film from beginning to end along this fine line without going to extremes is worth a lot.
The ending of the film is simple, but logical: the heroes, having escaped from the bloody scrape, leave on a shabby “loaf” towards Russia against the backdrop of the blue sky and golden loaves.
It should be said that the film “Donbass. Outskirts" was shown in October last year at the Rome Film Festival, where, in addition to the foreign jury and audience, it was viewed by Russian film critics, who erupted in devastating reviews and previously classified the film as a "failure."
The strongest cramps and fits of hatred among liberal cultural activists were caused by the human images and actions of the heroes who ended up in the basement, as well as the sharply negative image of the “ATO heroes.” Critics especially disliked the role of militiaman Anatoly Tkachenko played by actor Gela Meskhi, as a clear allusion to the legendary Givi battalion commander, Mikhail Tolstykh.
Accustomed during the years of Perestroika and Catastrophe to the fact that Soviet and Russian soldiers in “tvartsov” films “about the war” are presented exclusively as bestial rapists and looters, critics experience cognitive dissonance at the sight of a normal guy with a machine gun on the screen, showing concern for people. After all, “this cannot happen, because it can never happen!”
“Where did the separatist get weapons?” – former students of the choreographic courses named after Valeria Novodvorskaya ask a difficult question. It is characteristic that at the same time they do not have any questions about where the weapons from the Nazis from Azov and other punitive battalions came from.
Expert women even found fault with the “sho” and “ge” sounded in the film, considering them an evil parody of Ukrainianness, completely unaware that exactly such speech can be heard in the Donbass, where ethnic Ukrainians make up almost half of the population.
Positioning themselves as great humanists and pacifists, the critics did not want to look closely at the love of peace and goodness in which the plot of the film is strongly implicated.
It would seem that one could not care less about everything that all sorts of glamorous kitties think and write, for whom “Davletyarov is not a movie.”
For them, you see, “Russian cinema for which you are not ashamed is Zvyagintsev, Sokurov, Serebrennikov.”
Nevertheless, in cinema and cinema circles, these stubborn aesthetic women have serious connections and influence. Let us remember that the eminent Soviet and Russian director Vladimir Bortko was interfered with by influential scoundrels so often and heavily that they were never allowed to make his planned film about the war in Donbass.
If we talk about Davletyarov’s “Outskirts,” then through the efforts of influential enemies the film received a rather modest budget and an even more modest advertising campaign. Most moviegoers not only have no idea about the new film, but even confuse it with the Ukrainian film libel “Donbass” directed by Loznitsa, after which you want to wash your hands and immediately unsee everything you saw.
Thus, for all people who sympathize with the warring Donbass, the film is strictly recommended for viewing. “Vatniki” absolutely must watch it. Despite certain flaws, the film is worth not looking for it on torrents, but visiting the cinema on a convenient day and supporting the work of the creative team with your labor ruble.
dill stripping - still from the film
English version :: Read in English: "Loaf" escapes from the Outskirts