Here comes another film allegedly banned in Russia... Whilst in large parts of Europe free from the proverbial 'Russian World global project' (especially in Czech Republic where it was shot), this controversial creative work has certainly not been out of place. Some are eager to make everyone believe that Russia is nothing but a detention camp where all are fed the same gruel, where it is foolish to expect that each cell will hold the net and that they will arrange a mandatory viewing of 'The Shawshank Redemption'. Well, boil over, you Stormy Petrels of the new Russian Revolution, there is still pluralism in contemporary Russia! And, in particular, the film we are speaking about was available on the festival 'CZECH IN', which has been held in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and a couple of major Russian cities annually for the last several years.
However, my irony is easy to be parried by many of those who belong to the groups, for whom the words like 'KGB legacy in the modern Russian regime' or 'Ruscism' are password into the world of freedom of conscience rather than just empty words; of course, the expression 'modern Russia as a detention camp' is a sarcastic hyperbole under the motto 'no rest for the wicked regime': instead of resting on their laurels, those in power have to be constantly looking around, whether someone recalcitrant holding a brick, broken out of the walls of the Kremlin, is taking aim at them...
But I personally am cowardly enough to prefer not to bother myself with such inconvenient questions as 'am I a hero or a timeserver', but also, from time to time, to make fun of those who do bother. Yet I understand that someday, I might be quite pinched on by the geese I am teasing here right now (should the time of such 'geese' indeed come in long-suffering Russia).
However, I have watched 'Pouta' aiming completely not at that supreme and noble (in opinion of the civilised society, necessary to mention!) goal of ascension beyond that obdurate casemate, inveterately permeated with totalitarianism heavy smell, where Russia has again locked itself voluntarily. What an irony I have, writing all the aforesaid! Combating Putin regime by means of a film like 'Pouta'? (The main antagonist resembles Putin himself and is, just as Putin in the past, a Communist secret service functionary.) Homeric laughter! All the more so, none at all but festival maîtres, from which it has snatched its lot of praises, noticed it: box office was zilch...
Everything is much easier: I wanted some suspense and noir from 'Pouta'. And, honestly, I have found some. Although I am not thrilled. The end was quite disappointing: I would not expect the main heroine to get away so easily. No, I am not a cruel person but a realistic one. So I expected such an ending from the film, where an innocent girl, a simple crane operator, rejected courtship of a villain, a communist serviceman, preferring rather death, that the fur would really fly... But alas, the man with a REALLY Russophobic last name, Rusnák, have not been monstrous enough... Despite Ondřej Malý, as the film was being watched, repeatedly made an impression of an actor able to play someone to be described like this: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. Just see: the best spy, in the opinion of the top-brass (next best, with the top-brass itself being the best of the best, certainly); hits densely when pistoling; would morally rape the dissident he 'takes care of' so that the latter is available for twisting around little finger (you bet: striking a chord in one's intimate life could be worse than the notorious third degree! however, he is able to smash anybody, even a tall trasher, despite being so short himself); but at that, he suffers awful fits (panic attacks, things like that) and occasionally behaves as a weak female (drinks heavily and complaints about his school past where he was bullied; breaks dishes and expels his wife from the own home). A fearful man altogether. Kind of a fairytale antagonist though – simultaneously fearful and funny. So he occasionally resembled... Grouchy the Smurf: would always be saying 'I hate' never mind appropriately or not... So in the end, he failed...
P.S. A 2010 film. But the times they are a-changin': to date, it is quite a sedition even in Czech Republic. Since Zeman, the Czech President, likes Russia!
