Край Kray (The Edge, 2010)
An entertaining film by Alexei Uchitel that surprises me is a love story with all the western stereotypes of Russia (taiga, bears, moonshine, etc.) and I am sure will excite more viewers (men) than others. woman) shows train races with locomotives built in the early 20th century.
Personal stories of damage and strange transformation between Russians and Germans in the Siberian hinterland after the end of World War II: the victors seem to crawl into the skins of the vanquished, and vice versa. Ignat reaches the small village and stirs up the people with his routes and driving the locomotive. Eventually he goes to an island to rescue an old abandoned locomotive, thanks to the help of a German woman who fought alone on the island and survived four years later. So, it’s a very unconventional—yet very commercial—love story between Ignet and Elsa.
As Uchital said in an interview that it is the most commercial film he has ever done and thus appeals to a larger audience, unfortunately it is true that it sounds like a very interesting but very commercial film. Still there were some (very few) striking and breathtaking scenes that reminded us how Uchital can be poetic framing scenes.
I enjoyed the film which grabbed my attention every minute and didn’t let go until the end with its extraordinary aerial view of the gray Siberian forest in winter. So commercial doesn’t mean bad, but I totally missed the visual poetry and slow pace that allowed me to experience and live everything the story told. Russia’s Oscar submission baffles me, but whoever picked this movie seems to have thought of a movie that would please the Academy voters and -of course- win the Oscar.
So, if you are in the mood to watch a mainstream Russian movie with a very unconventionally told love story, then this is the movie to watch and I am sure you will enjoy it beyond what you thought. Then I am positive that the movie will be loved by all the locomotive action and men that the movie portrays.
