Thoughts about freedom Based on Chekhov’s story, the filmmakers presented a kind of modern version of it, and the final product appeared in a rather original form, deserving attention and attracting audience interest with its features.
Already in the very presentation of the frame and scenes lies an interesting combination of pseudo-documentary, retro film and artistic production. And the plot wanders through different periods of history, collecting the picture into a single whole. Almost the entire video is accompanied by text. This is either a voiceover giving a historical background, with accuracy on dates minting the main events, or interviews that are spoken directly to the camera on behalf of doctors and patients, or comments of an old video shot without sound and therefore requiring explanation, or directly plot dialogues, on which the entire focus of unfolding events is built.
So much emphasis is placed on the text here that the film seems to be about to turn into a theatrical play of the theater of the absurd. Taking into account the very theme of the work, various kinds of absurdities in this case are appropriate, often the heroes are brought into a frank philosophy about life, into thoughts about freedom, spoken aloud, into dialogues dedicated to society and social life. And the main highlight of the film risks becoming its disadvantage, since cinema is still a visual art, and such a textual load creates only the effect of chamber theater. The action does not require scale, because the plot has nowhere to expand, but the confined space with its atmosphere presses with special force, and further leads either to similar reasoning or to depressive boredom, and therefore this movie will not be available to every viewer.
The atmosphere of hopelessness is brightened by bright hope for the future, and this thin line of hope and light permeates, albeit very weak, but still not fading ray through the whole action. And just the aspect made in the bright future is confirmed by both the words of the text and visual vision, saturated at the end with almost something positive and nostalgic. When you seem to remember pleasant things, and look at the future with a smile, and children’s fervent laughter accompanies the sight of honest and open eyes looking into a happy and bright future, about which so many of the characters of the film philosophized.
Returning to the question of doctors and the sick, the film raises the question of justice in the human world. That almost every person has his accentuation and deviations, but one lucky - and they walk free, others are caught and put in such psychiatric hospitals. True, such a prison can be called with difficulty, here they do not cure, here they do not leave, here they take faith and hope, until there are those whose spirit cannot be broken even by a gray marble slab of indifference and injustice. More than once in the film it is said that the same doctors in moral qualities are much inferior to patients who are kept in the hospital, but for some reason in life play the role of doctors. That is why the basis of the whole story lies in attempts to find out the reasons for the head physician getting into the patient’s bed, and the whole problem of changing social roles is being solved in the most accessible way.
The question of perception of the film will affect the elementary “believe or not?”. From each viewer it will already depend on how successfully the ideological thought will be revealed. Who will believe the actors, and who will reproach the playfulness, unrealistic and crazy of what is happening. The film was more complicated than heavy. He is not so much burdened with his problems, but simply makes you think about the structure of the world around and about the problems of your own faith in the future, what it is for each of us and with what hope we look at what is happening around.
7 out of 10
Original
