Russian cinema as torture: Top 10 most inhumane modern domestic films

Last week, a funny initiative from one State Duma deputy from "Any Other Party in Russia" passed through the news feeds — to introduce the viewing of modern Russian films into the Criminal Code as punishment. It is clear that the deputy was joking, but there is a joke in every joke. Some modern Russian films are really great for this task. Let's say we do adopt a new law. Especially for future torturers — top 10 of the most inhumane modern Russian films that should be forcibly forced to watch (remember how in "Clockwork Orange"?) convicted maniacs, swindlers, thieves and other criminals.

Source: YAP

Important note: getting into the top 10 does not mean that this or that movie is bad! The review contains several films that are masterpieces in their own way. Films of the last 5-6 years have been selected for the list in order to meet the "modern" criterion as much as possible. Therefore, there is no "Cargo 200", no "Purgatory", no "Green Elephant". The list is ranked in alphabetical order of names.

Without skin (2014, directed by Vladimir Bek)

Youth soft porn, which is the debut feature film of a young St. Petersburg director, is not torture in itself, and even gives aesthetic pleasure to many, but Vladimir Beck makes the viewer feel a painful sense of shame and embarrassment for the characters wandering aimlessly in the nude around the architectural workshop. There is no meaning in the action, and attempts to unravel the author's concept will blow your brain.

Yes and Yes (2014, directed by Valeria Guy Germanica)

The latest full-length work of the infamous Guy Germanica is disgusted by the physiology of some scenes and the eye-popping psychedelic color scheme of the film. But that's okay, the main torture is drugging the viewer with a painful hangover atmosphere, from which you will want to fall asleep somewhere behind the garages.

Ten (2013, directed by Vladimir Kozlov)

On fast-forward, the film may seem black and white — in fact, it was just shot in a cloudy metropolis with monotonous gray high-rise buildings. Writer and director Vladimir Kozlov adheres to rough realism, so in his ultra-low-budget film, an important place is occupied, for example, by swearing gopnik. The director immerses you in the conditions of a gray depressive post-Soviet metropolis (the role of which is played by Chelyabinsk), causing a feeling of total hopelessness and hellish loneliness. According to the plot, the further, the worse…

Zoology (2016, directed by Ivan I. Tverdovsky)

This director has a talent for filling interesting ideas with some kind of pathological perversity. In Zoology, you will find yourself in a society of people with severe mental and mental disorders — in this context, the tail suddenly grown by the main character does not seem abnormal (although the scenes with the tail are quite disgusting). Perhaps this was the director's idea: invisible human deformities are worse and more dangerous than visible ones. From this point of view, the film is probably correct, but it's hard to watch it.

Meek (2017, directed by Sergey Loznitsa)

Together with the heroine, the viewer makes a journey almost literally through the circles of hell. "Meek" is two and a half hours of terrible everyday life, filled with rudeness, dirt, savagery and painful delirium. Loznitsa drew a murderous picture of the Russian province in an epic style and provoked dozens of Internet holivars, in which many film lovers "died". The effect of the "Meek" torture can be rabies, an obsessive desire to prove to everyone that Russia is not really like that.

Crimea (2017, directed by Alexey Pimanov)

Pimanov offers a sophisticated kind of cinema torture - the torture of facespalms. This is when the viewer, watching the boundless stupidity and absurdity of what is happening in the film, involuntarily hits himself in the face with his palm, turning it into a bloody mess by the end of the viewing.

I found a scythe on a stone (2017, directed by Anya Kreis)

Chernukha seems to have gone out of fashion in modern Russian cinema, but director Anya Kreis, apparently, is not aware. Chernukha as an artistic technique works well if used wisely, in moderation. Anya Kreis, in her film, elevates chernukha to the absolute and seems to beat the viewer with a frying pan non-stop, shouting the same phrase in his ear: "Only ghouls live in Russia!". The conclusion about the need to get out of this country is clearly read in the film. You can dump, for example, in Germany, where the director lives by the way.

The Siberian Ripper (2016, directed by Sergey Vital)

A high-quality low-budget slasher in which the Siberian director Sergey Zhizny more or less reliably reproduced the real case of the abduction and torture of young girls in Novokuznetsk in the 90s. Cinema is not for the faint of heart, and viewers with strong nerves will hardly stand the scenes where the poor things are sawing off their beautiful legs. Puddles of blood, pieces of meat, sawn—off fingers - the crew did a great job with the props.

Sofichka (2016, directed by Kira Kovalenko)

For many, watching Alexander Sokurov's films is torture, which does not negate the genius of this director. The student of the master Kira Kovalenko took all the worst of the Sokurov style and created a completely sterile, emotionally dried-up spectacle with supposedly deep moral overtones. Watching "Sofichka" can be compared to the torture of a prisoner in a punishment cell, left for several days without food and water.

It's hard to be a God (2013, directed by Alexey German)

Finally, modern torture Russian cinema No. 1. The viewer is simply taken and dipped with his muzzle into the fetid mud, and kept there for three hours, occasionally letting him breathe. Alexey Herman Sr. shot the most cinematic and even aesthetically pleasing human hell in his own way. But few people are able to perceive this infernal aesthetics, for most viewers, "It's hard to be God" is the cruelest movie torture.