Zhara (2006)

Moscow, hot summer day of 2006. The four high school friends meet after a long separation. They did not suspect that this meeting will drastically change the life of each of them.

Director:

Rezo Gigineishvili

Writer:

Rezo Gigineishvili (idea)

Stars:

Aleksey Chadov, Artur Smolyaninov, Konstantin Kryukov

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Aleksey Chadov	...	Aleksey
Artur Smolyaninov	...	Artur
Konstantin Kryukov	...	Kostya
Timur Yunusov	...	Timati (as Timati)
Anastasiya Kochetkova	...	Devushka s fotoapparatom
Agniya Ditkovskite	...	Nastya
Deni Dadaev	...	Deni
Alexander Rapoport	...	Inturist (as Aleksandr Rapopport)
Irina Rakhmanova	...	Ofitsiantka
Tatyana Lyutaeva	...	Mama Alekseya
Viktor Rudnichenko	...	Papa Alekseya
Igor Lysov	...	Otets Kosti
Olga Zharinova	...	Polina (as Olga Bolbukh)
Mikhail Vladimirov	...	Menedzher bara
Aleksandr Golubev	...	Barmen

Storyline

Moscow, hot summer day of 2006. The four high school friends meet after a long separation. They did not suspect that this meeting will drastically change the life of each of them.

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Plot Keywords:

youth | hot weather | group of friends | summertime | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

PG-13

Did You Know?

Trivia

The four main characters of the film have the same first names as the actors who play them, but their surnames that Aleksey sees briefly in a school photo album are different: Aleksey Chadov is Aleksey Nakhimov in the film, Artur Smolyaninov is Artur Donskov, Konstantin Kryukov is Konstantin Rudovsky, and even Timur Yunusov, who plays himself, is called Timur Vinogradov while Timati's real surname is Yunusov.

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Connections

Featured in BadComedian: Zhara - Review (2012)

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Soundtracks

Moskva
Performed by Dato Evgenidze (as Yevgenidze D.)
© Yevgenidze D.

User Reviews

Great interpretation on old theme

I saw this as part of the Russian Film Festival back-to-back with "Day Watch", and i'd have to say that all those people that didn't come to "Zhara (Heat)" as well missed out.

I found this to be great on a number of levels, first and foremost the old routine of having old friends relate to each other once again, but also to be able to see a modern Moscow as perhaps not shown elsewhere. It's the old habit of the more successful foreign films being too stereotyped to be good that gets kicked in this movie, with the only thing that will remind you of Russia being the beautiful women and the shots of vodka.

The central character Llyosha was played exceptionally well, and this is quite simply a warm comedy of sorts, but still plays nicely once you get past the initial "trying so hard" that we can expect for a film out of Eastern Europe with Western undertones.

Watch it if you can, and before it gets adapted by Hollywood (you know it will).

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Russia]

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian English Azerbaijani

Release Date:

28 December 2006 (Russia)

Also Known As:

Forróság

Filming Locations:

Moscow, Russia

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$16,877,870

Company Credits

Production Co:

Art Pictures Studio

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color