Vadik Chernyshov is an impoverished dreamer who spends his life drifting though Moscow with a video camera, hoping to shoot footage that will interest Western press agencies. He falls in love with the beautiful Helen, an English media executive, and subsequently they must contend with the barriers that their different backgrounds present.
Direction
Pawlikowski's debut already has that chilly, precise lyricism.
Cinematography
Moscow looks beautifully, hopelessly gray.
Acting
Bodrov Jr. carries desperate optimism like a wound.
Director
Paweł Pawlikowski
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sergei Bodrov Jr. became Russia's biggest star before dying tragically in a 2002 avalanche during filming. This role captures his fragile charisma at its peak.
Shot during Russia's 1998 economic collapse, the film captures a specific moment when Western media parachuted in for 'human interest' then vanished.
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