Man from Podolsk

Summary

Unclassifiable film that goes back and forth from the absurd black comedy to terror about an unusual police interrogation to which a journalist detained for no apparent reason is subjected.

Review

After a day with several setbacks and when he prepares to return to Podolsk (a small city near Moscow), Nicolai (Vadik Koriolov) is arrested for no apparent reason and taken to a police station, where he is subjected to an increasingly unusual interrogation.

Semyon Serzin's film, based on the work of Dmitriy Danilov (also a co-writer), does not hide this theatrical origin, but it knows how to give it a convincing cinematography.

At some unclassifiable point, the story immerses us in absurd and sometimes surreal and almost dreamlike situations that go (and come) from black comedy to terror, in a true Kafkaesque odyssey for the protagonist (and the viewer). Police interrogators assume atypical roles in the face of the perplexed Nicolai, a journalist unhappy with his work situation and the place where he lives. As reminiscent of his communist days, the film is set today. And that is one of its keys.