Telperion
Jedi
"4" (Chetyr) starring Marina Vovchenko
I think to call it a unique experience with film making would be a real understatement. The movie is so well crafted and well directed...it's really amazing to watch. Originally banned by the Russian government, “4” finally gained an audience when it was discovered and promoted by a Dutch film festival. After some (well deserved) international exposure, the movie which had been entangled in bureaucratic red tape and post production for two or three years finally saw the light of day in Russia - as a chopped and edited version however. I discovered the complete unedited version of “4” last summer at the Free Library and was surprised to later learn that it was not available at many of the larger video rental outlets. If you get a chance to see it, you'll easily understand why it's not on the front shelf greeting you as you step into a Blockbuster or TLA video. Though it's entertaining and thought provoking it's really not a fun movie at all, in fact I found parts of to be extremely unsettling mostly because it hit too close to home on a lot of different levels. I really believe this film shows in a matter of fact way a vision of what could possibly happen here in the US either in the near future or in the distant future if the economic system continues to crumble. In some ways it makes clear how we're already well on our way to that destination.
Not too long ago there was an article on the SOTT main page that explored this theme of economic collapse in Russia and the general response which you can find here -
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/147683-Survival-in-Times-of-Uncertainty-Growing-Up-in-Russia-in-the-1990s
Many in the Western world are under the hilarious delusion that capitalism is immune to the kind of collapse suffered by communism. This movie forces one to rethink that attitude. Despite some of its very darkly surreal and fanciful aspects, “4” gives the American viewer in particular some serious food for thought about what life might possibly be like in a post-economic crisis super power. Like the article mentioned above, the movie also shows how even after a collapse, life continues...though as to the quality of that life, well, that's a completely different matter.
In the beginning of the move there's not too much to indicate that there was ever a crisis in Russia; people are shown getting off of work, in a bar having drinks, there are cars on the road, massive construction projects are underway, restaurants are open, trains are running etc. But after a while the movie takes you underneath the veneer of normality and shows a fictional but not all that farfetched scenario of what life is like on the other side of the tracks and beneath the surface. The movie starts off at a slow pace, showing the three main characters getting off of work and meeting randomly in a bar in the middle of the night. The main characters basically represent the archetypes of the capitalist, the artisan/intellectual and the laborer. They strike up a conversation and for various reasons all three lie about their true occupations. Marina, the “advertiser”, subsequently receives the most attention during the film for reasons which become obvious as the film progresses. The other two main characters each represent a different aspect of post-Soviet Russia. While they're both intriguing, the director for whatever reason decided they didn't merit as much fleshing out as Marina's character. After the three strangers part ways she returns home and receives a telephone call that prompts her to immediately make a journey to the distant slums for a funeral. As Marina travels on her way to the wake the contrast between the city and the godforsaken rural landscape is laid bare in a very dramatic way. All in all it's very shocking and it was not staged. Piles of trash litter the fields, abandoned (or are they?) factories menace the landscape and wild dogs prowl the areas near the slums looking for scraps of food. The roads are barely passable, the signs of economic depression are unmistakable. Great care is taken to show the desolation. It was really shocking seeing images from Russia that were so similar to some I've seen in economically depressed urban and rural areas of the US. Most of the villagers living in the the slum where Marina eventually arrives are actual real life destitute residents of a small town and not actresses. They are used to illustrate one of the most gratuitous displays of hard core ghetto poverty I've ever witnessed in a movie (or in real life for that matter). With these villagers specifically, I think some of the slum scenes are meant to convey the extreme social and moral degradation commonly experienced by a particular segment of Russian society (what one might call “throwaway people”) but I'm not 100% sure about that. Certain aspects of this movie seem to be wide open to interpretation based on ones own personal experiences. As one of the reviews pointed out, there seem to be certain things about this film that are not so easily accessible to a Western audience.
A few of the recurring themes I picked up on were: the unanswered questions regarding the scope of government cloning/medical experiments, the insidiousness of government surveillance and domination, superstition and how some use superstition to their benefit, appearance versus reality, loss of national/personal identity. Also strongly standing out to me was the idea of how the ruling class will continue to function despite a collapse, and how this ruling class will rule with an iron fist disregarding civil liberties. Ultimately, for me at least, this film really captured the essence of what it's like to live inside of a cold, calculating, and powerful monolithic entity. I really enjoyed the film for it's artistic qualities but much more for its uncompromising honesty.
In Russian with Subtitles
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/four/ - for complete reviews
I think to call it a unique experience with film making would be a real understatement. The movie is so well crafted and well directed...it's really amazing to watch. Originally banned by the Russian government, “4” finally gained an audience when it was discovered and promoted by a Dutch film festival. After some (well deserved) international exposure, the movie which had been entangled in bureaucratic red tape and post production for two or three years finally saw the light of day in Russia - as a chopped and edited version however. I discovered the complete unedited version of “4” last summer at the Free Library and was surprised to later learn that it was not available at many of the larger video rental outlets. If you get a chance to see it, you'll easily understand why it's not on the front shelf greeting you as you step into a Blockbuster or TLA video. Though it's entertaining and thought provoking it's really not a fun movie at all, in fact I found parts of to be extremely unsettling mostly because it hit too close to home on a lot of different levels. I really believe this film shows in a matter of fact way a vision of what could possibly happen here in the US either in the near future or in the distant future if the economic system continues to crumble. In some ways it makes clear how we're already well on our way to that destination.
Not too long ago there was an article on the SOTT main page that explored this theme of economic collapse in Russia and the general response which you can find here -
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/147683-Survival-in-Times-of-Uncertainty-Growing-Up-in-Russia-in-the-1990s
Many in the Western world are under the hilarious delusion that capitalism is immune to the kind of collapse suffered by communism. This movie forces one to rethink that attitude. Despite some of its very darkly surreal and fanciful aspects, “4” gives the American viewer in particular some serious food for thought about what life might possibly be like in a post-economic crisis super power. Like the article mentioned above, the movie also shows how even after a collapse, life continues...though as to the quality of that life, well, that's a completely different matter.
In the beginning of the move there's not too much to indicate that there was ever a crisis in Russia; people are shown getting off of work, in a bar having drinks, there are cars on the road, massive construction projects are underway, restaurants are open, trains are running etc. But after a while the movie takes you underneath the veneer of normality and shows a fictional but not all that farfetched scenario of what life is like on the other side of the tracks and beneath the surface. The movie starts off at a slow pace, showing the three main characters getting off of work and meeting randomly in a bar in the middle of the night. The main characters basically represent the archetypes of the capitalist, the artisan/intellectual and the laborer. They strike up a conversation and for various reasons all three lie about their true occupations. Marina, the “advertiser”, subsequently receives the most attention during the film for reasons which become obvious as the film progresses. The other two main characters each represent a different aspect of post-Soviet Russia. While they're both intriguing, the director for whatever reason decided they didn't merit as much fleshing out as Marina's character. After the three strangers part ways she returns home and receives a telephone call that prompts her to immediately make a journey to the distant slums for a funeral. As Marina travels on her way to the wake the contrast between the city and the godforsaken rural landscape is laid bare in a very dramatic way. All in all it's very shocking and it was not staged. Piles of trash litter the fields, abandoned (or are they?) factories menace the landscape and wild dogs prowl the areas near the slums looking for scraps of food. The roads are barely passable, the signs of economic depression are unmistakable. Great care is taken to show the desolation. It was really shocking seeing images from Russia that were so similar to some I've seen in economically depressed urban and rural areas of the US. Most of the villagers living in the the slum where Marina eventually arrives are actual real life destitute residents of a small town and not actresses. They are used to illustrate one of the most gratuitous displays of hard core ghetto poverty I've ever witnessed in a movie (or in real life for that matter). With these villagers specifically, I think some of the slum scenes are meant to convey the extreme social and moral degradation commonly experienced by a particular segment of Russian society (what one might call “throwaway people”) but I'm not 100% sure about that. Certain aspects of this movie seem to be wide open to interpretation based on ones own personal experiences. As one of the reviews pointed out, there seem to be certain things about this film that are not so easily accessible to a Western audience.
A few of the recurring themes I picked up on were: the unanswered questions regarding the scope of government cloning/medical experiments, the insidiousness of government surveillance and domination, superstition and how some use superstition to their benefit, appearance versus reality, loss of national/personal identity. Also strongly standing out to me was the idea of how the ruling class will continue to function despite a collapse, and how this ruling class will rule with an iron fist disregarding civil liberties. Ultimately, for me at least, this film really captured the essence of what it's like to live inside of a cold, calculating, and powerful monolithic entity. I really enjoyed the film for it's artistic qualities but much more for its uncompromising honesty.
In Russian with Subtitles
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/four/ - for complete reviews
