This picture is a French-Russian collaboration but I saw little French influence here -- in any event, it's a simple story but a spectacular film.
I'm not all that keen on contemporary films but this one caught my attention due to the Russian angle, which I have come to enjoy in both literature and film. It's a cute love story with a Chechnyn War battle as the backdrop.
The staff and inmates of a marginally budgeted mental institution on the Russia-Chechnyn border come under fire, finding themselves betwixt the Russian Army and the Muslim Rebel Guerillas. The staff is forced to vacate the precesses to try to get some buses to evacuate their patients but they are compelled, due to the hot battle, to stay away for a few days. In the meantime, the patients are free to roam.
The Muslim Rebels take over the asylum as a base, pretty much ignoring all the inmates, (who think it's all great fun as the walls explode from tank shelling!), except for one very pretty female accordion-playing nut. She's not quite as looney as her peers until she receives a kidding marriage proposal from one of the Muslim Rebels, Ahmed, the ugliest of the lot -- and then she's head over heels in love with the guy.
There's a bit of a sub-plot in that the girl is also obsessed with a fantasy of singer Bryan Adams (who "shows up" periodically, singing love songs to her in English!), with whom she believes that she's engaged to. Still, she's willing to marry the Chechnyn since he's right there all the time, so to speak.
A second male inmate is also somewhat sane, (his foible is his backpack which he never takes off), and he realizes that there is no real engagement for his nutty friend so he tries to retreive her from the nearby Rebel camp, after the girl follows Ahmed into actual battle.
It's difficult to understand how the cuteness of the main theme can be combined with a killing war so successfully, but they've done it here. This is really a fine, well-made film.
If you can at all tolerate English subtitles of the Russian verbiage, (which are also well-done and very readable without much distraction), then don't pass this one by. It's a real sleeper that you won't hear much about in the West.
I'm not all that keen on contemporary films but this one caught my attention due to the Russian angle, which I have come to enjoy in both literature and film. It's a cute love story with a Chechnyn War battle as the backdrop.
The staff and inmates of a marginally budgeted mental institution on the Russia-Chechnyn border come under fire, finding themselves betwixt the Russian Army and the Muslim Rebel Guerillas. The staff is forced to vacate the precesses to try to get some buses to evacuate their patients but they are compelled, due to the hot battle, to stay away for a few days. In the meantime, the patients are free to roam.
The Muslim Rebels take over the asylum as a base, pretty much ignoring all the inmates, (who think it's all great fun as the walls explode from tank shelling!), except for one very pretty female accordion-playing nut. She's not quite as looney as her peers until she receives a kidding marriage proposal from one of the Muslim Rebels, Ahmed, the ugliest of the lot -- and then she's head over heels in love with the guy.
There's a bit of a sub-plot in that the girl is also obsessed with a fantasy of singer Bryan Adams (who "shows up" periodically, singing love songs to her in English!), with whom she believes that she's engaged to. Still, she's willing to marry the Chechnyn since he's right there all the time, so to speak.
A second male inmate is also somewhat sane, (his foible is his backpack which he never takes off), and he realizes that there is no real engagement for his nutty friend so he tries to retreive her from the nearby Rebel camp, after the girl follows Ahmed into actual battle.
It's difficult to understand how the cuteness of the main theme can be combined with a killing war so successfully, but they've done it here. This is really a fine, well-made film.
If you can at all tolerate English subtitles of the Russian verbiage, (which are also well-done and very readable without much distraction), then don't pass this one by. It's a real sleeper that you won't hear much about in the West.