Bumer

This film reminded me of a joke about a foreigner traveling through Russia by train and after several hours of waiting at the station, he disgustedly asks the train conductor what the problem is. The engine driver is changing the locomotive. For so long?! He's changing it for vodka... Honestly, this is a completely average gangster film, so average that I realized I had seen it years ago, which wouldn't be strange if I hadn't realized it during the last scene. I had perfectly erased the film from my memory. It has an uneven pace with a lot of dull moments, but it scores points with its atmosphere of a country where the state structure is collapsing and general chaos prevails. Widespread corruption, unemployment, and alcoholism. The absurd scene where a wounded gangster stops an ambulance and demands to be taken to the hospital, only to find out that the ambulance has been "privatized" for five years and a small business owner is currently transporting a load of cabbage heads in it, is typical of the film. Overall impression: 55%. (12.10.2010)