And all this strange The plot is simple and not new: a young American of Jewish roots comes to Ukraine to find the people who saved his grandfather during World War II. This should be helped by a person professionally engaged in such searches. For some reason, he is unable to accompany the young Yankees around the country, so he sends his young son and his old father in his place. And then the viewer expects exciting adventures, fights, chases, shootouts and explosions of helicopters.
Joking. In fact, the film is not even a classic road-movie, although all the components are present. Heroes travel not so much around the country, but according to their memories, desires, dreams. The main character Jonathan, played by Elijah Wood, does not doubt his success for a minute, it is the desire to bring him closer and gives rise to those awkward situations in which the characters fall. Accompanying him, Alex Pertsev (played by the notorious Eugene Gudz) first treats the American with humor, and only then penetrates him with sympathy. The nameless grandfather, performed by the actor-defector Leskin, simultaneously solves his tasks, which until the end of the film are known only to him.
What does the film do? First, an interesting vision of the director of Ukrainian life. The first part of the film, in which Jonathan gets acquainted with the Eastern European mentality, can be considered a great comedy. Personally, I laughed repeatedly. It is worth noting that the film has a lot of dialogue in Russian. Firstly, it is necessary for authenticity; secondly, for most actors Russian is the native language; thirdly, it adds a certain comic to the film. A little knowledge of English and, voila, subtitles in the enemy language evoke only laughter. For example, “broad road” is translated as “superway”.
The second part of the film tells the story of the difficult fate of the Jews during the occupation. By the way, this is the only blunder of the film. On the clothes of the executed Jews there is a sewn Star of David. It is not clear who sewed them and why - apparently the author read some literature about fascist concentration camps, where sewn hexagrams really took place (along with the inscriptions "Wertvolle Juden").
The characters of the film are very silent – this is the strongest directorial move I have ever seen. I applaud standing up. I really liked the dialogue about the ring: considering that Elijah Wood is one of the participants, the effect is amazing. I liked the soundtrack: the experiences of Jonathan Wood under a sweet heart since the school bench “Leningrad” – delight and devoid of speech instantly. True, the latter quickly returns, still - and who will sing along?
The film is not entirely politically correct. Grandpa calls Jonathan a “Jew,” although the subtitles say otherwise: they use a normal “Jew.” Also interesting is the dialogue between the Yankees and Alex, who really does not understand what is wrong with the word “nigger”.
The film is shot for pennies (only $ 7 million), and the fees do not exceed even 2.5 million in the same currency. It was the dislike of Americans for films, where there are a lot of subtitles, and the Second World War is won not by them, but by someone else.
The film is the most powerful: the almost complete absence of blunders, a lot of interesting finds, an excellent soundtrack, a constant sense of déjà vu at the sight of landscapes, the presence of colorful understandable humor, the presence of Elijah Wood - makes the tape magnificent, and the debut of the director Schreiberg - super successful. Take the DVD!
9 out of 10
Original