Reviews

I'm very interested in Baltic arts, and was really excited when this film was displayed in past Mostra Cinema del Mediterrani, since I had never had the chance to watch a Latvian film. Though, the experience turned out to be rather discommoding... it's a good movie, but I found it pretty unpleasant; an extremely sour family drama. Not that I dislike Nordic family dramas - I absolutely loved Festen. But this one was too disturbing for my taste, and I wasn't moved by the drama - nor able to find anything pleasant in any of the characters.

But I insist, I think it's a good movie; I liked both the direction and Maskats' music, I'd say the narrative was very good and most of the performances splendid, and while I certainly haven't read Inga Abele's novel I somehow felt like this was a good adaptation. But this is not my cup of tea. Anyway, if you like icy, harshly sordid trauma dramas and come across this film - I suggest you to give it a try.

... I'm not surprised at all that Gaidai's last movie remains his least known one. And honestly, I think it's better this way - it's an extremely poor film, and a quite screeching one too. The absolutely ridiculous script is portrayed in such an atrociously rancid way that it would seem impossible that Gaidai would have made such a film if it wasn't for his characteristic aesthetic blunting pitifully devalued here and there. It feels so pathetically decadent that it's deeply depressing.

The sole redeeming feature of 'Na Deribasovskoy...' is the delightful characterization of the gallery of Soviet leaders and their odd involvement in the script, which certainly is not enough for avoiding me to hope I can erase this movie from my mind soon as much as I wish I wouldn't have watched it. Horrible.