Writer-director Rainer Sarnet’s deliriously weird The Invisible Fight would be irksome if it weren’t crafted so lovingly and with a charming earnestness. Part wuxia homage, part coming-of-age story, this slice of absurdist historical fiction has little on its mind other than to amuse, which it does regularly enough to stay on the audience’s good side.
The film is set in the Soviet Union circa 1973, with the drabness of life under an authoritarian regime sharply contrasting with the more fulfilling, vibrant existence that our protagonist, Rafael (Ursel Tilk), is chasing after. The young man, who still lives with his mother in a modest apartment, is the only survivor of an attack by three Chinese bandits at the Soviet-Chinese border, where he works as a guard. When his car breaks down one day near a monastery, Rafael, a rebel in search of radicalization, goads the monks and does his...
The film is set in the Soviet Union circa 1973, with the drabness of life under an authoritarian regime sharply contrasting with the more fulfilling, vibrant existence that our protagonist, Rafael (Ursel Tilk), is chasing after. The young man, who still lives with his mother in a modest apartment, is the only survivor of an attack by three Chinese bandits at the Soviet-Chinese border, where he works as a guard. When his car breaks down one day near a monastery, Rafael, a rebel in search of radicalization, goads the monks and does his...
- 2/17/2024
- by Charles Lyons-Burt
- Slant Magazine
"I'm going to be a monk." Kino Lorber has unveiled their official US trailer for the Estonian film known as The Invisible Fight, a martial arts comedy made by Estonian filmmaker Rainer Sarnet (also of the cult hit November). This is finally set to open in US theaters in February, starting at the Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan, with more cities to follow throughout March. It premiered at Locarno and played at Fantastic Fest and Sitges (where I caught up with it). The Invisible Fight is described as a satirical take on the martial arts film, artfully paying tribute to the genre's Chinese wuxia roots. Set in the 1970s, it's about an Estonian guard on the Soviet-Chinese border who, after surviving and watching a deadly attack, decides to become a monk but must continually prove along the way that he's capable of becoming the enlightened man that he set out to be.
- 1/30/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
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