Andrei Konchalovsky is an interesting director who deals with intelligent themes in commercial movies. I liked an earlier American film he made - Runaway Train. House of Fools is a Russian language film interspersed with two short scenes in which the characters speak Arabic or Chechen. For some reason, the non Russian portion, brief though it is, is not subtitled.
The story concerns a mental hospital in Ingushetia which gets caught up in the crossfire between Russian forces and Chechen rebels. When the only remaining nurse resigns and the ageing doctor goes off to find transport to move the patients but does not return, hell breaks loose. The patients in the violent section are let loose, Chechens occupy the building and Russians shells land nearby. We witness much of the bizarre drama through the eyes of the innocent accordion player Janna, who loves Bryan Adams (he has a nice singing supporting role). She meets a Chechen and decides to leave Bryan and marry him instead.
I won't go into the plot but this film is pretty good because its watchable throughout and doesn't get boring, even though the Bryan Adams thing is slightly overdone. There is an amazing scene involving a dead rebel exchange where the Chechen and Russian commanders talk and the soldiers barter. Apparently such dealings were quite normal during the Chechen war.
The story concerns a mental hospital in Ingushetia which gets caught up in the crossfire between Russian forces and Chechen rebels. When the only remaining nurse resigns and the ageing doctor goes off to find transport to move the patients but does not return, hell breaks loose. The patients in the violent section are let loose, Chechens occupy the building and Russians shells land nearby. We witness much of the bizarre drama through the eyes of the innocent accordion player Janna, who loves Bryan Adams (he has a nice singing supporting role). She meets a Chechen and decides to leave Bryan and marry him instead.
I won't go into the plot but this film is pretty good because its watchable throughout and doesn't get boring, even though the Bryan Adams thing is slightly overdone. There is an amazing scene involving a dead rebel exchange where the Chechen and Russian commanders talk and the soldiers barter. Apparently such dealings were quite normal during the Chechen war.