Compartment No 6. (15.)
Directed by Juho Kuosmanen.
Starring Seidi Haarla, Yuri Borosov, Dinara Drukarova and Julia Aug. In cinemas and streaming on Curzon Home Cinema. In Russian and Finnish with subtitles. 107 mins.
With impeccable timing, this Finnish production gives audiences exactly what they need right now: a film full of horrible Russians. A mature Finnish student (Haarla) living in Moscow with her horrible Russian girlfriend (Aug) sets off on her own on an epic, four-day journey to Murmansk to see the Petroglyphs on a horrible Russian train with unfriendly Russian staff and is forced to share a compartment with a boorish, drunk and extremely moody Russian man (Borosov.)
This is the kind of film where you are praying for nothing to happen. Unlike a real train, a lot can happen on a film train. It could be the location for a thriller, a horror, a mystery, a romance. Kuosmanen’s film doesn't reveal its destination until the last third and if you don’t know it’s going to be that bit more compelling. (Seriously, don't read anything about it – even a one-line synopsis could spoil it.)
The film has menace, bittersweet human insight and humour. Most of all it feels lived in, like something that really happened, an anecdote told you over late drinks. Anybody who's ever travelled alone in a foreign country will recognise just how accurately the film captures that sense of exhilarating unease. You smell the smells, you feel the cold. Haarla’s central performance is low key wonderful: she holds our attention without making her character more interesting that she really is. The film is a little marvel.
Directed by Juho Kuosmanen.
Starring Seidi Haarla, Yuri Borosov, Dinara Drukarova and Julia Aug. In cinemas and streaming on Curzon Home Cinema. In Russian and Finnish with subtitles. 107 mins.
With impeccable timing, this Finnish production gives audiences exactly what they need right now: a film full of horrible Russians. A mature Finnish student (Haarla) living in Moscow with her horrible Russian girlfriend (Aug) sets off on her own on an epic, four-day journey to Murmansk to see the Petroglyphs on a horrible Russian train with unfriendly Russian staff and is forced to share a compartment with a boorish, drunk and extremely moody Russian man (Borosov.)
This is the kind of film where you are praying for nothing to happen. Unlike a real train, a lot can happen on a film train. It could be the location for a thriller, a horror, a mystery, a romance. Kuosmanen’s film doesn't reveal its destination until the last third and if you don’t know it’s going to be that bit more compelling. (Seriously, don't read anything about it – even a one-line synopsis could spoil it.)
The film has menace, bittersweet human insight and humour. Most of all it feels lived in, like something that really happened, an anecdote told you over late drinks. Anybody who's ever travelled alone in a foreign country will recognise just how accurately the film captures that sense of exhilarating unease. You smell the smells, you feel the cold. Haarla’s central performance is low key wonderful: she holds our attention without making her character more interesting that she really is. The film is a little marvel.
