I had high hopes for this film. I do like a bit of human drama and tragedy cased in an artistic presentation... and a gay film taking place in rural Russia should be a rare offering too... But it fell short a big time, I'm afraid.
Now, the tragedy of 2 leading characters' doomed relationship is understandable and well established early. But then it just drags on without any real build up or change. Up until the very sudden and unexpected turn at the end, the rest is just very beautiful but totally artificial scenes of their journey.
2 big issues there; first, it doesn't make sense realistically. They start off driving a car. Then they suddenly abandon it, leaving the car somewhere... then they walk, then suddenly get horses out of nowhere, then they walk again... one moment it's dark, next moment suddenly sunny. It feels like they just filmed all these scenes and patched them randomly without a care about continuity or the rational choice for means and route that a real traveler would have taken.
Second, how the scenes are composed are totally artificial. All those close-ups, how the characters are positioned and posed in the scenes, and endless presentation of beautiful nature scenes of Siberia. It really feels more like a stylish TV commercial or an atmospheric music video, but all those style doesn't contribute much to the characters or their drama.
I would rather have preferred it if the director dropped his pretentious ambition and shrunk the film to, say, a 15 min short, really focusing on the intense human drama itself.
Now, the tragedy of 2 leading characters' doomed relationship is understandable and well established early. But then it just drags on without any real build up or change. Up until the very sudden and unexpected turn at the end, the rest is just very beautiful but totally artificial scenes of their journey.
2 big issues there; first, it doesn't make sense realistically. They start off driving a car. Then they suddenly abandon it, leaving the car somewhere... then they walk, then suddenly get horses out of nowhere, then they walk again... one moment it's dark, next moment suddenly sunny. It feels like they just filmed all these scenes and patched them randomly without a care about continuity or the rational choice for means and route that a real traveler would have taken.
Second, how the scenes are composed are totally artificial. All those close-ups, how the characters are positioned and posed in the scenes, and endless presentation of beautiful nature scenes of Siberia. It really feels more like a stylish TV commercial or an atmospheric music video, but all those style doesn't contribute much to the characters or their drama.
I would rather have preferred it if the director dropped his pretentious ambition and shrunk the film to, say, a 15 min short, really focusing on the intense human drama itself.