P-239 cargo Not cranberries at all, but a gloomy sketch from the life of post-perestroika Russia, which is quite consistent in the style of Boomer and Lungin’s Life Line. Probably, many have already forgotten, but indeed quite recently there were times when a strange-looking man could simply go into an unfamiliar apartment and commit a real robbery there under a contrived pretext. With humor, of course, the creators approached the case, but I quite admit that the dogs were shot down specifically to later put the owners score. And it is quite possible that strange people could enter the ordinary Moscow market selling an incomprehensible substance with a strange sign “Poo”.
And the plot of the film is quite realistic. An accident occurs at a nuclear power plant and instead of providing for the family of the victim, he is simply dismissed out of sight. In “Silkwood”, for example, the heroine Meryl Streep was specially irradiated so that she did not too defend her own rights. And here is a small and missing town on the map. Amazingly, the fate of the hero intersects with the lives of several scumbags. It's gonna be all around this.
We should pay tribute to the filmmakers in how clearly foreign actors, most of whom do not know Russian at all, coped with the typically Russian characters. I didn’t even recognize Rada Mitchell, but she was quite Russian. Even better than Maria Mironova. And Paddy Considine? He is such a typical simple guy from Nizhny Novgorod province. And you will not believe that Rada was born in Melbourne, and Paddy in the small British town of Burton apon Trent. Not immigrants at all, but how similar. This is not only a successful casting - it is a game, character development, understanding of the atmosphere. You look at Jordan Long and even wonder how it is so that the role of a notorious scoundrel in the “Voroshilov shooter” got Makarov, and not this little-known Briton. In Plutonia-239 he played so flawlessly that he left no doubt about his belonging to the very terrible and hopeless Russia of the 90s.
Everyone here was good, in this tale of sad wanderings. You can probably look for inconsistencies and complain about poor coverage of realities. However, if they filmed the propaganda about how everything “was bad in Russia”, then probably the budget would be more allocated, and the choice of topics would not be so careful. Nope. Here all attention is paid to the style, atmosphere and plot. In essence, a horror film teetering on the verge of black comedy. What is only the final "tightening" one of the most dangerous elements of the Mendeleev table. Probably the best advertising against drugs and crime.
So, when choosing between “Zmurki”, “Freight-200” or “Plutonium-239” – it is quite possible to prefer the last film. Stylistics are similar. Yes, and the soundtrack Shevchuk probably will like many. But in the film also plays Melanie Thierry, so similar. No, it is true that he lived in Russia for many years.
7 out of 10