Vancouver International Film Festival 2009 – Russian flicks Morphia and A Room And A Half – REVIEW AND PHOTO REPORT! PART I
At this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, two Russian movies have been showcased. Sure enough I could not miss an opportunity to take a peek at this year’s lineup. And, although the festival wrapped up on over two week ago, I could not help but post this anyway. So, here is my review of both movies. Spoiler alert for those of you who still want to watch them!
Morphia (2008)
Director: Aleksei Balabanov
To sum it up in one sentence: Morphia takes guts to watch in full. The cinematography is superb, but the movie is so brutally and painfully realistic that I felt physically sick a couple of times while watching it, and here is why…
The movie tells the story of a young doctor who becomes addicted to morphine. The script is based on a short story series (The Notes Of A Young Doctor) written by a famous Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov. I was thrilled when I found that out because I’ve read the series a long time ago, and I remember how much impact the book had on me. It was not the gloomy Bulgakov that the world would come to know eventually. The way Bulgakov tells these semi-autobiographical stories is actually quite ‘digestible.’ But, the ending of the story about Dr. Mikhail Polyakov, the center figure in Morphia, blurred out of my mind, so before going to see the movie, I did not really remember the details of what was going to happen. And, boy, was I on a nerve string when I was watching that movie… Following the mind of a drug addict who has people’s lives in his hands can get emotionally exhausting!
Another interesting aspect of the production is that Sergei Bodrov Jr. wrote the adapted script for the movie. Bodrov Jr.’s father is a famous Russian movie director living in the United States. But, Bodrov Jr. has his own claim to fame. He started out acting and became famous for his roles in Brat (Brother) and Brat-2 (Brother-2) also directed by Balabanov, which became iconic for the accurate depiction of the bloody 90’s in Russia. Later, Bodrov Jr. ventured into film directing. Tragically, in 2005, while shooting his movie in the Karmadon Gorge in North Ossetia, Bodrov Jr. and his crew were caught in the rockslide. The search for Bordov Jr. and his crew lasted for days, but turned up nothing. Bodrov Jr. was 31. But, nonetheless, his work lives on, and it is great to see his script being used by such great master as Morphia’s director Aleksei Balabanov.
Balabanov is behind Of Freaks and Men (shot entirely in sepia), Cargo 200 (Gruz 200, on the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan), War (Voina, on Chechen conflict with Russia) and of course Brat with Bodrov Jr. in the leading role. Balabanov’s Morphia stars the top Russian acting talent – the likes of Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Andrei Panin, and Sergei Garmash. Always true to the genre of exceptional realism, Balabanov did not betray his style in Morphia -- this movie will turn your guts out, but you won’t dare walk away!
