The Land of Oz

04 January 2021

17 October 2023

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Vasily Sigarev's film "Country of Oz", 2015. I can’t say that he is one of my favorite directors, quite the opposite, especially after the movie “Top Top”, but here the genre was designated comedy and I decided. If it’s a comedy, I’m the Empress of China, although I was surprised to read it in some reviews. I will tell you right away, it was not funny to me, in my opinion, this is not a comedy, but a rather evil satire, however, I had some doubts about the signs of everyday life and perversions played by the plot, in particular, some coprophilic entertainment played by a stallion and his friend, as well as a bard - a fan of "tantric sex", as far as they are actually characteristic of Russians, it is difficult for me to judge, in Russia I have never lived. The main character of Lenka from her village Malaya Lyalya comes to E-burg in the hope, apparently, to change something in her hopeless life, from which she seems to be completely stupefied, because she behaves like a zombie. And here begins her journey to work, full of events and unexpected encounters, each of which can compete with the next in the wild. Strangely enough, the film is almost a happy ending.
The actors were good - in the main role the invariable Yana Troyanova, Sigarev constantly removes his wife, besides the actress she is not bad. The film can be perceived as a protest against the usual traditions of celebrating New Year’s holidays and New Year’s movies on this topic, seasoned with a famous piece of shit and a lot of stupidity, stupidity and alcohol. If someone is interested in this interpretation, you can see it. There is a lot of vocabulary in the film.

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01 September 2022

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A feast during the plague or a carnival in the dark. A black comedy that hides a hopeless drama. The choice of genre is very successful. The drama itself would be too depressing and too documentary. Only through comedy can one want to see the magical land shown. Black comedy, by definition, is not for sensitive natures. The humor came out rude, angry and very high quality. The only overkill, in my opinion, in the scene with the failure of tantric sex.

It is funny that, anticipating the reaction of part of the audience, the director inserted in the film a self-irony dialogue between himself and the viewer, as if reading the script.

- What do you really care about shit?
- That's not it.
- What about?
- About human nature.

In the end, the indignant viewer declares a moral victory: “What are these values no longer values?” – and declares the victory of censorship. Only to the outraged viewer, the director, in turn, is ruthless. A character who talks about right and wrong is not suitable for the role of moral authority. He pronounces his tirade, sticking out of a window with a cigarette butt in his hand next to glued chewing gum. What is he doing at this moment?

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06 April 2021