I’ve got a new film festival rule this year which is beware the film that runs under eighty minutes. I’ve had two so far and they have both been utter shockers! This was a terrible Russian film about a stoker who keeps the fires burning in the boiler room below a hotel building. The stoker was once a Soviet war hero who after suffering a serious injury, when a mine exploded near him, was discharged and now isn’t all together there. He also lives in the boiler room, just stoking the fires and penning his novel. At regular intervals, a man the stoker knew during the war drops off bodies and incinerates them in the fire. The stoker believes him to be a police chief, but he is really a gangster.
The film then plays out like a pathetic soap opera with everyone knowing everyone, and sleeping with each other. When they all find out the truth of everything, friendships are destroyed and blood is shed in large volumes. The stoker has little to do with it all until his daughter gets mixed up in the insanity, and forces him to become involved and to right some wrongs.
That is a terrible description of the film but believe me, it is not worth your time seeing it. It has some of the worst acting I have ever seen in a film, some of the most gratuitous nudity I have ever seen (the stoker’s daughter answers a phone, and just happens to be completely naked), but the worst thing about the film is the constant terrible music. It never stops and has little to do with what is happening on screen. It was doing my head in and is truly excrutiating, as is the film as a whole. I cannot bear to talk about this film anymore, just make sure you avoid this film.
1/2 Star.
You had me at "The film then plays out like a pathetic soap opera" - just my kind of show! PS. It's not like you to complain about nudity on film :)
ReplyDeleteHayley