Homeland security It was logical to expect the return of the cult cycle of Soviet cinema, given its extraordinary popularity and success in its time, as well as the modern fashion for all sorts of “continuations”. The legacy of the legendary cinema was literally stolen by its followers Russia, Ukraine ("Queen of the gas station 2"), and our Belarus was no exception: "White Dews". Continuation, State Border. Movies 9-12”. I don’t think it’s going to be a good thing to do any parallels , but I’ll try to do it anyway. When compared, the modern project clearly goes towards seriality. Each film from the Soviet cycle looked separate, relatively complete, there and the action took place in different periods of history, with different characters, but the same theme. Here, from picture to picture, we observe the fate of one of the heads of the border outpost Anton Pekarsky, who serves either on the western border (Film 9 "Couriers of Fear"), then on the southern one - with Ukraine (Film 11 "Deadly Catch").
And from series to series, the tension and scale of the plot are constantly increasing. If in “Courier of Fear” we observe the “small” problems of illegal border crossing at a separate site, then by the 11th film the hero of Andrey Frolov is faced with the real smuggling of MANPADS from Ukraine, traitors in the ranks of the border services and state security of the SBU. The authors of the series do not spare their heroes and both positive and negative characters die, who are heroic and who are treacherous. It is not necessary to connect this with criminal showdowns (which is so full of NTV series) - the specifics of the State Border are quite different. There is a place in the movies for simple everyday problems that the heirs of the Soviet Union often faced in the difficult 90s: acute shortage of food, illegal smuggling, drunkenness, betrayal, etc. In showing the atmosphere of the time, the project looked quite convincing. However, this is only in the 9th film, since “Afghan Trap” and “Deadly Catch” are already the main bet on entertainment, saturating the pictures with chases, shootouts, conspiracies, and a simple man with his problems of the era gradually fades into the background. The authors of the Soviet cycle did not forget this.
In the genre, the ninth film of the series with the search for a serial killer is more like a detective; the tenth (in my opinion, the most unsuccessful because of the protracted plot, a large number of empty dialogues and the frequent absence of any actions at all) is a criminal action movie, where the supply of Afghan heroin to the West through Belarus is involved; the eleventh is a real spy thriller, with conspiracies in the highest echelons of power. However, all of them are united by the adventure genre with all its inherent attributes: exciting chases, unexpected plot twists, dynamics and a mystery over which the viewer has yet to scratch his head or... just wait for the end. Of course, one cannot do without the famous love triangle, but in general, the high-quality script of Valentin Zaluzhny does not allow him to slide down to a simple “soap”.
The numbering of films in the continuation of the famous series "State Border" is common. To 8 old Soviet films, four more were shot (4 films in two series):
Movie 9 "Couriers of Fear" (2013)
Movie 10 “Afghan Trap” (2014)
Movie 11 "Deadly Catch" (2014)
Movie 12 "False Purpose" (2015)
Since the synopsis on the film page refers to the 9th film, I will give the official descriptions to the other remaining ones:
Movie 10 "Afghan Trap":
When the Soviet Union died, the young country faced the task of defending its borders with its own forces. In order to solve particularly difficult tasks to suppress smuggling, illegal emigration and many other dangerous operations, a separate active measures service – OSM – has been formed. It will be headed by veteran of the Afghan war Anton Pekarsky.
Movie 11 "Deadly Catch":
Belarusian border guards detain cargo illegally transported through the Dnieper section. But smuggling is one of the stolen in Ukraine anti-aircraft missile systems. Osam, a separate active events service, is connected to the proceedings in this case. The Ukrainian side also sends its agent to participate in the investigation. It is impossible to miss MANPADS, but there is no trust between the parties.
The twelfth film from the series: “False goal” is not considered here intentionally, because it is already a completely independent creation – where there are completely different characters – major of the border service Konstantin Kudin, the shooting was conducted by another director, and the whole team.
The cycle looks quite successful , especially against the background of modern empty criminal detectives. It is obvious that Igor Chetverikov tried not only to make a watchable movie, but also to convey to his viewer a certain idea, to set the picture a certain mood, so that he looks almost in one breath. The ninth film from the cycle - "Couriers of Fear" cost $ 1 million and caused at the time of release (2014) a considerable number of positive reviews from film critics. It is gratifying that, unlike most “continuations”, “State Border 2”, although it could not surpass the Soviet original, has become a worthy franchise, destroying the myth that all “continuations” are a priori a failure.
8 out of 10