I will try to write as a disinterested third party, but I don’t know if I can.
The movie is very powerful. The first thing I want to say is that the place for the filming of the picture is flawlessly chosen - in the Chukotka Autonomous Region - and therefore, from the first minutes of viewing, you fall in love with the background, but all because of simple nature, simple snow-covered landscape, which has no end and edge, which by its tranquility and white emptiness suggests that those very people are there, as if in their own country and there is nothing living next to them two and you.
That's why it feels like you're there behind their backs. You're with them. Here you stand and wait for them on the ground as they take temperature readings, as they walk in this silence to the company, when Pasha fools around, jumping on iron rusty barrels and throwing pebbles into the sea.
There are only two heroes, but they do not feel lonely. They may miss those who have stayed on the "big land," but that doesn't stop them from being at work. You can see with what care and attention they approach to recording and monitoring changes in indicators.
For me, there are 2 key points in which Paul’s ability and inability to make decisions is well shown, very contrasting. The film perfectly shows the human defenselessness before making these decisions - in the first case, when the intern Pasha does not want to talk, and does not know whether to tell his mentor about the bad news, he will very much experience everything that is happening internally, and also, in the second moment, when he quickly decides that it is necessary to tell Sergei that the fish was poisoned by him.
The film is not only good, it is beautiful! This is the first film in the last half of the year that I can talk about — it’s aesthetically good, it’s a beautiful story, it’s a psychological challenge that we all solve, and lastly, there’s not a lot of music in the film, but the soundtracks that I’ve heard are really good. I think this film is worth showing outside the country. I will review it more than once. He teaches a lot.
The main character is Paul, an unformed young man. Sergey Vitalyevich is a fully decorated personality with a strong character. A limited space and a sense of hopelessness. There is only permafrost and no music around, only the ticking of the clock, the noise of the radio and the ocean.
The end leaves a big question about its relevance in this context. Is that how it ends? Many questions. There are few answers. They are all kind of elusive for me, gloomy, like a polar summer.
The picture is beautiful. Actors are sincere. But something leaves doubt, mistrust...
6 out of 10
The painting. Great work of the director and the whole group!
Where else can you see these aspects of the far north? I suppose there are inaccuracies of everyday life, but this is not the essence. A teenager paired with an experienced in life specialist, and here is... How do you handle that? I don't want to reveal the plot, watch the movie!
In addition to the gray hazy everyday life of the polar life, this work touches on the themes of a growing teenager, personal compatibility in extreme conditions, discipline, everyday routine, its importance and much more. What a pleasure to see this work in Russian. Not in Iceland, not in Greenland or Canada, and not at the Arctic stations of South Africa or the United States, but on the Arctic circle, in Russian the whole drama unfolds.
The actors did not pump up, and in the storyline there are drawn-out or even stretched moments, and it would be possible to fill with flora and fauna with a polar bear, where the fox, the white polar ... But this is a movie, not a tutorial. There is a story and here he told you... And with a good music track. I loved the scenery and everything...
Alexey Popogrebsky will continue to work, I hope. And I am personally, very curious to see in the future his scripts and films as a director.
8 out of 10
A good film about the conflict of two generations against the backdrop of beautiful landscapes of Chukotka. The vast and harsh northern expanses are a real school of life that will turn the true nature of man inside out. The older, much experienced polar explorer teaches the young intern the correct worldly wisdom. But the problem of the younger generation is not that they do not want to obey their elders, they are just completely different.
Paul appears before the viewer as an irresponsible slob with porridge in his head, who came north from his cozy city, most likely for romance and adventure, unprepared for wild conditions. You won’t be able to do that.
His partner Sergey lived at the station for several years, he is an old-school man, stocky and has seen life, and let him not know modern lotions in the form of emoticons and SMS-oks and trust the records made by his own hand, entered in the “old-fashioned” magazine than obtained with the help of modern equipment.
The main plus of the picture will note the natural shooting at the existing polar station (a huge respect for my work of the film crew). This gives you a full sense of a small fraction of the great work that polar explorers, geologists, meteorologists are doing for our common good, and let it sound a little pathetic.
Cons – long plans, emphasis on small things in the form of rusty barrels, bare rocks, clothes of the heroes, perhaps the operator wanted to approach the style of Takovsky, I don’t know, but it turned out boring, albeit beautiful from the visual side. Psychological drama lacks passion. The intrigue declared in the first half fades at the end.
A good, clear film about the importance of knowing your place in life.
The polar station is where “it has always been difficult to live”. Where “men do business”, and not in computer shooters are cut. Where they catch char, and not candy quietly eat.
“Time is passing, but the North is here.” And Victor doesn't care about our emojis. He has had continuous years of observation. And that's his life. And he didn't call anyone in. And even if it is sometimes artlessly expressed, but the freeze will never sleep.
And Danilov. Maybe he's a good programmer, maybe he's a musician. But he's not a polar explorer. And the man, apparently, too. Perhaps it is wrong to judge a person for being weak. But if you're weak, why go after a bear? With an unloaded and unloaded gun ...
In any case, in the fate of Viktor Danilov did not play a special role. What happened was what should have happened. But how does Danilov live on? If he is not a bad person, he will have to live badly.
God save the polar explorers and their wives and children and all of us. And spare us the evil one who often takes us where we don't belong.
Reading reviews. Many people write “some strange feelings.” Have you ever thought that this “incomprehensibility” is caused by the absolute emptiness of the film? Perhaps it is not clear because everyone praises, and you do not know why, but you can not argue with most! They know better than that!
The movie is nonsense. I say it boldly. The plot is stupid, the problem is made up. The heroes were completely incomprehensible. Their actions were simply puzzling!
Nature. Yes, it's beautiful, yes, it's another character. But she was just the background! She didn't do anything for the plot. Absolutely! She did not play, she did not interfere, did not help, did not argue with the heroes. She was static. Rain was replaced by wind, then snow, then sun. We just stated the fact of natural phenomena in Chukotka. They added a bear for the entourage. Which never "shot out."
Somebody please teach our actors how to talk. You can't hear them. What are they talking about? Who did their stage speech? I dare say no one. I feel like I just got out of the corner and into the camera. Open your mouth wide, do not be lazy!
You know who I liked? Nikolai Petrovich, the one who kept trying to talk to Sergei Vitalyevich. His conversations with this miracle Pasha have amused me. The only outlet was for the entire more than 2-hour film about nothing!
The best word for this film is ABSURD! The city guy came to practice in Chukotka. Want emotions, feelings, self-testing? Good. Why are you hiding behind your headphones and playing computer games? Go, merge with nature, absorb tons. No, he must have thought it was raspberries. And did no one instruct him about the reality there? Absurd? Absurd.
Sergei Vitalyevich. He's a fascist! First, it means he scolded the kid for inaccurate data that he works through his sleeves, and then, spitting on everything, went for a couple of days to fish. Say you went AWOL, I deserved it. Very simple! And what about his fiery speech about responsibility, about the work of many decades, which can go down the drain due to unfair work? This is bullshit, honestly. Well, obviously, the director included his "heartbreaking" monologue for the sharpness, so to speak, sensations, to heat up the situation. And the fact that later actions and actions are completely not confirmed by the thesis above is nonsense, people scoop up, do not notice. Absurd!
The apogee of the absurd is, of course, their game of cat and mouse. I've never seen that before, I promise. Two absolute idiots, first shoot each other, and then one hides, the other searches. And ask why, why? I don't know, I'll answer you! I don't think the main characters know that either.
Of course I'd still write. And about the long shots, and about the monstrous “revenge”, and about the huge amount of time allotted to ... fish! Anyone who saw the film and didn’t like it – well done, because there is nothing to like. All the rest, success.
To begin with, I want to mention the fact that no matter how many films I watched, the desire to write a review arose only when I watched How I spent this summer. To this extent, this film did not leave me indifferent. Now everything in order.
First of all, during the two hours of the film, I never took my eyes off the screen – so much emotion went up in every moment! The same thing with the dialogues – there were not many of them, but I wanted to hear every sound carefully, because everything seemed important for understanding the problem and realizing the entire tension of the situation!
I want to note the excellent work of director Alexei Popogrebsky, who opened Russian cinema for me in a new role. Such a delicate psychological mood of the film in Russia was not long ago. It makes us think about the many things that surround us, to look at the people around us in a new way, and to realize in a different way the fine line between truth and lies, friendship and hatred, life and death. It is fascinating to see how a person can open up in an extreme situation, what are the dark corners of the human soul.
I can’t help but mention the excellent performance of Gregory Dobrygin. To be honest, I decided to see this film because of its prizes, and because of Gregory, who became very attractive to me after Black Lightning. Here he discovered new facets of his talent, showed that he can not only play a loving and noble superman, but also convey the whole range of feelings of a swirling, lost person who made a mistake and does not know how to escape from his own lies. Close-up plans of his character Paul helped create additional tension in the film, his eyes, full of hopeless sadness, fear and confusion do not leave indifferent. Realistic in every emotion, it seems that you have known this hero for a long time, and just are in this dark story with him.
Extraordinarily liked the scenes, when the camera for a long time lingered at one point, showing all the endless longing, hopelessness that can only appear on this forgotten land.
In conclusion, I want to say that I am eternally grateful to all the creators of this strong film, which our country can certainly be proud of!
10 out of 10, absolutely!!!
Severe film pro bears Two, Chukotka. One old, hardened wolf always takes a bear rifle with him. The second young player in the ears and playing Stalker on the computer. There can be no understanding between them, they are different and to back down for each of them is to cross out their whole world. But a ridiculous accident puts the world upside down. While an old polar explorer is fishing on the far end of the island, the young man has to receive a radio message about the death of his colleague’s family. It is impossible to report this directly, and a bullet between the eyes can be crushed, but every day of silence tightens the plot knot more and more densely, which is surprising that in the end it will turn into a stranglehold when you have to choose your own or someone else’s life to put under attack. Alexey Popogrebsky made a very harsh ascetic film. The frame is white because of the snows of Chukotka and the northern sky, most of the film sounds are represented only by the wind, and the cries of seagulls. The cameraman Pavel Kostomarov will receive a specially created “Silver Bear” of the Berlin Festival for the film, and then all the participants of the filming will speak with a fading voice about how they met with a real polar bear. Thank God the bear had more important things to do than communicate with the crew. The actors will also not be deprived of prizes, and in Russia for the first time shot such a polar film. Is Russia a Scandinavian country? 9 out of 10 Original
Severe film pro bears Two, Chukotka. One old, hardened wolf always takes a bear rifle with him. The second young player in the ears and playing Stalker on the computer. There can be no understanding between them, they are different and to back down for each of them is to cross out their whole world. But a ridiculous accident puts the world upside down. While an old polar explorer is fishing on the far end of the island, the young man has to receive a radio message about the death of his colleague’s family. It is impossible to report this directly, and a bullet between the eyes can be crushed, but every day of silence tightens the plot knot more and more densely, which is surprising that in the end it will turn into a stranglehold when you have to choose your own or someone else’s life to put under attack. Alexey Popogrebsky made a very harsh ascetic film. The frame is white because of the snows of Chukotka and the northern sky, most of the film sounds are represented only by the wind, and the cries of seagulls. The cameraman Pavel Kostomarov will receive a specially created “Silver Bear” of the Berlin Festival for the film, and then all the participants of the filming will speak with a fading voice about how they met with a real polar bear. Thank God the bear had more important things to do than communicate with the crew. The actors will also not be deprived of prizes, and in Russia for the first time shot such a polar film. Is Russia a Scandinavian country? 9 out of 10 Original