V SUBOTTU (INNOCENT SATURDAY)

Russia, 2011, 108 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Alexander Mindadze

For the record, this is the kind of film that this reviewer finds almost unendurable. Receiving a fair amount of negative response, it nevertheless pleased those who are more interested in creative film techniques than in narrative, or who are fascinated by the excessive behaviour of Russians or want to explore the uses of hand-held cameras (more here than in a Dardennes Brothers' film plus The Blair Witch Project).

This is a film about the day the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded in April 1986. It starts intensely enough with the news, the beginnings of cover-ups, party discussions, the desire not to cause panic. The central character is a young party member who works at the plant and who runs (at some length) to get to the plant. He rushes to a dorm to get his girlfriend to run to the station and get a train out of Chernobyl. A series of incidents (starting with the girl's heel being broken) takes us further and further away from the train and deposits the young man and the girl into what turns out to be a raucous day at a wedding.

Most of the film forgets about the plant and what was happening or not happening, and offers us instead a kind of Emir Kustirica frenzied drinking party, lots of drinks plus songs, an 'eat, drink and be stupidly merry' avoidance of any of the real issues. Of course, that does make a point, but whether this is the point that we want to experience is quite another matter.