DEAD MAN'S BLUFF

Symposium

A persiflage of Russian action movies in the immediate post-Soviet era, when the pressure of “primary accumulation” was triggering bloody feuds among mafia gangs – on screen and in real life, too. Throughout the bloodthirsty scenes of violence the gestures and speech of the star-studded Russian cast are so exaggerated that the clichés of the genre are reduced to total banality. In a small Russian town, Simon and Sergej must either safely deliver to local mafia boss Michalyč (Nikita Michalkov in an unexpected role) a suitcase full of heroin, or else pay with their lives… The film is set in the early 1990s, but the credits include a fl ash forward to the present, and we learn how things have changed in the new Russia.
Žmurki / Blinde Kuh
RUS 2005 / 109 min
Director: Aleksej Balabanov
  • Screenplay: Stas Mochnačev,Aleksej Balabanov
  • Cinematographer: Evgenij Privin
  • Editor: Tatyana Kuzmicheva
  • Music: Vyacheslav Butusov
  • Cast: Aleksej Panin,Dmitrij Djužev,Nikita Michalkov,Sergej Makoveckij,Viktor Suchorukov
  • Producer: Sergej Seljanov
  • Production Company: CTB Film Company - St. Petersburg
  • Rights Holder: Intercinema XXI Century - Moskau
A persiflage of Russian action movies in the immediate post-Soviet era, when the pressure of “primary accumulation” was triggering bloody feuds among mafia gangs – on screen and in real life, too. Throughout the bloodthirsty scenes of violence the gestures and speech of the star-studded Russian cast are so exaggerated that the clichés of the genre are reduced to total banality. In a small Russian town, Simon and Sergej must either safely deliver to local mafia boss Michalyč (Nikita Michalkov in an unexpected role) a suitcase full of heroin, or else pay with their lives… The film is set in the early 1990s, but the credits include a fl ash forward to the present, and we learn how things have changed in the new Russia.
  • Screenplay: Stas Mochnačev,Aleksej Balabanov
  • Cinematographer: Evgenij Privin
  • Editor: Tatyana Kuzmicheva
  • Music: Vyacheslav Butusov
  • Cast: Aleksej Panin,Dmitrij Djužev,Nikita Michalkov,Sergej Makoveckij,Viktor Suchorukov
  • Producer: Sergej Seljanov
  • Production Company: CTB Film Company - St. Petersburg
  • Rights Holder: Intercinema XXI Century - Moskau