V gorode Sochi tyomnye nochi (1989) User Reviews

Student and a plumber or two criminals?

[UnknownDoomer · 6/10 · 26 March 2024]

At first it may seem that this film is a typical set of sketches from the life of an ordinary student and a plumber who deals in fraud, the story of which could well unfold somewhere in the early or mid-Soviet seventies, but only at first glance. In the process the picture acquires increasingly darker colors, the failed plumber turns out to be a repeat offender with two convictions, gradually getting lost in the context of where, when and who he managed to "shoe", how and for what amount, and the student turns out to be a riotous person, in the course of what is happening, how another and a character who is losing the meaning of life, in her own way moving to nowhere over the heads of the personalities around them. Ultimately, a confluence of different circumstances will bring them together in the city of Sochi and, as is typical for "perestroika" cinema, there will be no happy ending.

No gold medal this time (web)

[leplatypus · 1/10 · 24 September 2016]

One year later, the same team that gave us « little Vera » reunites in another production ! Honestly, i was bored the 2 hours : sure the fact that my french subtitles were weak doesn't help me to really understand the stories but beyond the movie was totally bleak and really strange ! It happens during X-mas so we see the Russian way but this dark world looks surreal : it reminds me a bit of « Brazil » : You can't find a industrial country in 1989 that looks like that : so little technology, small households almost bare, ugly and in decay… The fashion is also peculiar… As usual, people gather to drink and to eat… Actually, Natalya is cheated by her husband but as she punches, she has to deal with justice. At the end, she is in Sotchi : it's the best part of the movie as we can see sun, light and an Intourist Hotel. But then she bumps with relatives and everything falls apart… Except for this finale, she barely acts this time, almost hidden in her warm clothes and hair. The other characters speaks a lot but it's too slow and disconnected to keep me alert!