The simplest way to sum up this movie is that it reminds me, quite strongly, of the Jamie and Aurélia arc of Love, Actually, where the two develop a relationship of sorts even with a language barrier in play.
Ushan Çakir takes on the role of Cemal, who has an arranged marriage set up for him, but is taken by friends and his uncle to Kyev as a sort of bachelor party, with the intention of it providing him a chance with a prostitute before he heads back and gets married. While at a club, he spots Sasha (Viktoria Spesivtseva), and without communication, he goes with her out of the club and back to her place, all in a very quiet, uneasy position as they don't communicate at all.
When Sasha finds out her grandmother is missing, their activities are interrupted and instead the two end up searching around Kyev together, and the two slowly build up a chemistry between the two, and the whole thing always has a bittersweet undertone to all of it, knowing the communications difficulties, the miscommunications, and that both of them are already in their own relationships of sorts. The language barrier persists, though, in causing troubles and leading to the two being pulled apart towards the end.
With the language differences throughout, I do think one of the impressive things is just how communicative the two lead actors are, especially given that so much had to happen without talking, or only single words, and yet the way they play off of one another feels so natural and so genuine.
The boldest choice of the film, though, was how it ended. Romantic films are full of the cliché ending, where they realize that how they feel is worth pursuing, and they make that last minute gambit to stop the other person before its too late, from It Happened One Night to Frozen. And then there's this, where they both have those moments of realization.... and then bittersweet turns to almost bitter, as they both decide to return to their lives as it was before, as though none of what happened between them occurred. It's a poignant moment, realizing that they've both decided to go back to where they were before, even if they were less happy, but it's also a very sad moment that adds a somewhat bleak nature to film, all in all.
It may be a good story, but with an almost melancholy tone to it.
Ushan Çakir takes on the role of Cemal, who has an arranged marriage set up for him, but is taken by friends and his uncle to Kyev as a sort of bachelor party, with the intention of it providing him a chance with a prostitute before he heads back and gets married. While at a club, he spots Sasha (Viktoria Spesivtseva), and without communication, he goes with her out of the club and back to her place, all in a very quiet, uneasy position as they don't communicate at all.
When Sasha finds out her grandmother is missing, their activities are interrupted and instead the two end up searching around Kyev together, and the two slowly build up a chemistry between the two, and the whole thing always has a bittersweet undertone to all of it, knowing the communications difficulties, the miscommunications, and that both of them are already in their own relationships of sorts. The language barrier persists, though, in causing troubles and leading to the two being pulled apart towards the end.
With the language differences throughout, I do think one of the impressive things is just how communicative the two lead actors are, especially given that so much had to happen without talking, or only single words, and yet the way they play off of one another feels so natural and so genuine.
The boldest choice of the film, though, was how it ended. Romantic films are full of the cliché ending, where they realize that how they feel is worth pursuing, and they make that last minute gambit to stop the other person before its too late, from It Happened One Night to Frozen. And then there's this, where they both have those moments of realization.... and then bittersweet turns to almost bitter, as they both decide to return to their lives as it was before, as though none of what happened between them occurred. It's a poignant moment, realizing that they've both decided to go back to where they were before, even if they were less happy, but it's also a very sad moment that adds a somewhat bleak nature to film, all in all.
It may be a good story, but with an almost melancholy tone to it.
