Zhara (2006)

Directors:

Rezo Gigineishvili
Viktor Podosyonov

Writer:

Rezo Gigineishvili (writer)

Release Date:

28 December 2006 (Russia)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Cast

Aleksei Chadov	...	Aleksey
Artur Smolyaninov	...	Artur
Konstantin Kryukov	...	Kostya
Timur Yunusov	...	Timati (as Timati)
Anastasiya Kochetkova	...	The Girl with a Camera
Agniya Ditkovskite	...	Nastya
Deni Dadaev	...	Deni
Aleksandr Rapopport	...	The Foreign Tourist
Irina Rakhmanova	...	The Waitress
Tatyana Lyutayeva	...	Aleksey's Mother
Viktor Rudnichenko	...	Aleksey's Father
Igor Lysov	...	Kostya's Father
Olga Bolbukh	...	Polina
Mikhail Vladimirov	...	The Manager of the Bar
Aleksandr Golubyov	...	The Bartender

Also Known As:

Жара (Russia)
The Heat (International: English title) (informal English title)

Runtime:

Russia:95 min

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Moscow, Russia

Company:

Art Pictures Studio

Another guilty pleasure happened in one heck summer day in Moscow...

V Yanyarya budet zhara... In January comes the heat...

I just watched this film this morning and I like it. From the trailer, I thought it would be more romantic, but turned out to be an above-average of Russian comedy. 4 good folks from schools got reunion in a summer café on the bank of River Moskva, and they had an unthinkable trouble to deal with check, though one of them is so rich. One by one, a friend left the table to find solution and everyone of them met with different stories. The rich one got caught, ended up in jail for a night with the help from other folks. Friendship never ends...

The film's idea is unique, given a try to bring out everything that happens in Russian cities right now, from possible street crooks and young "Novyi Russkij", to more serious ones, like problems with immigrants and skin-heads or racists. But the plot is somewhat too predictable and relies too much on coincidence. As you should know the slogan of contemporary Russia, "Russia - a country of possibilities"; so everything can happen and taking that into consideration, that makes this film not senseless at all.

However, I like it as another Russian guilty pleasure. As a foreigner studying in Russia, this film is good enough to entertain me and easily shows Russian young people's lifestyle (most of them are a part of "ribyata"(guys) from 9 rota). The soundtrack is quite impressed, given a combination of slow Russian "popsa" to Russian soft night-club-style hip hop, although. The ensemble, comprising of young Russian rising stars, did a great job. The director also did a fine job using every fantastic view of Megapolis Moscow that you can possibly think of.

It is hard to imagine if people outside Russia today would get the film, anyway (even babushkas who live in this territory for the whole life will have a hard time watching this one).