Review of Chuchelo

Chuchelo (1984)
9/10
one of the best, most poetic Soviet films
21 April 2008
This movie i thought was about a lot of things. Relationships between kids, students and teachers and kids and parents. It's about a very sweet and kind-hearted girl who is new at school in a small Russian 80's town. The kids tease her but not too badly, it isn't until she makes a mistake of taking someone's blame unto herself that her whole class turns against her. Fascinating developed characters add a lot to this film. All the kids are just really different and fun to watch interacting. Also this film is realistic, there's really not a lot of theatrical acting or cinematography in it. This movie feels honest, and you can actually feel something for the characters because the performances and the script are very good. The way the film is shot is very poetic and not boring, IMO. Good music/soundtrack too. From creepy ambient and instrumentals, to rock-n-roll tunes, and modern Russian songs. The music is used geniously in this film, it means something to the kids, we see them singing and listening to music a lot and some of the important scenes we see them doing something to songs. The theme song, a soviet sounding march (which we see the director of this film conducting) is a beautiful song too. One of my favorite Russian films. You can find so many themes in it and every character is deep. Sadly, i don't think there is a version with English subtitles.
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