This film doesn't know what it wants to be - it lurches between comedy, satire and moments of elegiac drama. It needs about 30 minutes expunging and the storytelling would be more coherent and impactful.
There are some well defined characters and a few that make little useful contribution, but the acting was mostly theatrical, if not bombastic at times. I believe the story would have benefited had the emphasis been placed more on the dramatic and self-sacrificial nature of the events portrayed. The cinematography stands out, as well as the music, but I couldn't help being reminded of The Revenant in respect of both.
IMHO, the English title should be Elevation - there is a scene in which a captured revolutionary is being carted along the street and the camera rests on a plaque outside the school wall where we see the word "Vuzvishenie" deployed to mean the kind of elevation only education brings. This theme wove a thread throughout the whole film.
There are some well defined characters and a few that make little useful contribution, but the acting was mostly theatrical, if not bombastic at times. I believe the story would have benefited had the emphasis been placed more on the dramatic and self-sacrificial nature of the events portrayed. The cinematography stands out, as well as the music, but I couldn't help being reminded of The Revenant in respect of both.
IMHO, the English title should be Elevation - there is a scene in which a captured revolutionary is being carted along the street and the camera rests on a plaque outside the school wall where we see the word "Vuzvishenie" deployed to mean the kind of elevation only education brings. This theme wove a thread throughout the whole film.