Bury Me Behind the Baseboard (2009)

A small child is trapped in a tug-of-war battle between his frivolous, but loving mother and an emotionally abusive neurotic grandmother, who wants to "shelter" her beloved grandson at all cost.

Director:

Sergey Snezhkin

Writers:

Pavel Sanaev (book), Sergey Snezhkin (screenplay)

Stars:

Svetlana Kryuchkova, Aleksey Petrenko, Mariya Shukshina

3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Svetlana Kryuchkova	...	Grandma
Aleksey Petrenko	...	Granddad
Mariya Shukshina	...	Mum
Konstantin Vorobyov	...	Tolik
Sasha Drobitko	...	Grandson
Valeriy Kukhareshin
Denis Kirillov
Roman Gribkov
Anatoliy Dzivaev
Liana Zhvaniya
Larisa Dobrovolskaya
Nadezhda Ryazantseva
Margarita Bychkova
Samvel Muzhikyan	...	(as S.Muzhikyan)
A. Muzhikyan

Storyline

A small child is trapped in a tug-of-war battle between his frivolous, but loving mother and an emotionally abusive neurotic grandmother, who wants to "shelter" her beloved grandson at all cost.

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Plot Keywords:

mother | grandmother | photograph | maliciousness | domineering mother | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

PG-13

Did You Know?

Quotes

[last lines]
Sasha Savelyev: Mom! Mom!
Sasha's mother: What?
Sasha Savelyev: Are you going to divide grandma's possessions with Tolya today?
Sasha's mother: [looks at him, perplexed] What?
Sasha Savelyev: Grandma hid money... in the fourth... tenth... and sixteenth volume of Gorky... and in the old kettle and in the bags with rice. Heh!

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Soundtracks

ODESSKIY PORT
Performed by Leonid Utyosov (as L. Utyosov)
Music by Modest Tabachnikov (as M. Tabachnikov)
Lyrics by Ilya Frenkel (as I. Frenkel)
Played when Sasha turns the tape recorder on

User Reviews

Good acting but very different from the book

"Pokhoronite menya za plintusom" is based on an autobiographical novel by Pavel Sanaev - a young writer, screenwriter, film director and translator.

The story in the novel is told by a first person narrator, an eight years old boy living with his grandparents, who would not let him see his mother, while the boy always dreams about seeing her and those rare moments that he spends with her are the happiest in his life. The grandmother, who is dominant in the family, tries to control the little boy's life as much as she can. She believes that her grandson has all the diseases of the world and that he is going to die soon. She loves the boy but her love is mostly expressed in cussing at him and cursing him. One of the zings of the book is the consummate cuss language used by the grandmother.

The film delivers superb acting, especially by the grandmother and her husband. The grandmother fits the role perfectly - her looks, the voice, the tone, the gestures. This is the person I had in mind when I was reading the book. The henpecked grandfather's part played by Aleksey Petrenko is also delivered very well. All the scenes involving the grandparents are good. On the other had, the scenes with the boy's mother and her boyfriend are not satisfying. I especially disliked the way the mother's boyfriend was written - a drunkard constantly quarreling with his girlfriend. There is no such thing in the book where the mother's boyfriend is demonstrated as an intelligent and wise man, respectful and loving towards his girlfriend (and the boy). After all, the character is based on well known Russian actor and director Rolan Bykov, who used to drink at some time in his life but not in the times covered by the novel and the film. By the way, the book is dedicated to Rolan Bykov, towards whom the author had great deal of admiration.

Also, for some reason the director of the film has given certain hints about anti Semitism of the grandmother, while there is nothing about this in the book. I don't know why this was necessary.

Finally, something that the film lacks the most is the humor the novel is filled with. The narrator in the book tells the stories of his childhood (that deal with illnesses, death, conflict between family members, maternal deprivation and other sad subjects) with great humor and optimism. When you read the novel you can't help laughing, however this is completely missing in the film, making it quite dark and gloomy.

Details

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian Ukrainian

Release Date:

3 December 2009 (Russia)

Also Known As:

Bury Me Behind the Baseboard

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,136,883

Company Credits

Production Co:

Globus Film Studio, Russian Ministry of Culture and Cinematography

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color