Cargo 200 (film)

Cargo 200 (Russian: Груз 200, romanized: Gruz 200) is a Russian neo-noir thriller film from 2007 by Aleksei Balabanov depicting the late Soviet society. The action is set during the culmination of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1984. The movie's title Cargo 200 refers to the zinc coffins in which dead Soviet soldiers were shipped home.[1][2][3] The movie was said to be based on a true story. It received generally positive reviews from critics.

Cargo 200
Directed byAleksei Balabanov
Produced bySergei Selyanov
Written byAleksei Balabanov
StarringAgniya Kuznetsova
Leonid Bichevin
Aleksei Poluyan
Leonid Gromov
Aleksei Serebryakov
Production
company
Kinokompaniya CTB
Release date
16 May 2007 (Cannes)
14 June 2007 (Russia)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryRussia
LanguageRussian
English
Box officeRUB 3,553,428 (Russia)

Plot

Artyom (Leonid Gromov), professor of Scientific Atheism at the Leningrad State University, is visiting his brother in a small town. There he meets Valery (Leonid Bichevin), a young man who is dating his niece and has come to take her to a party. On the way back from Leninsk to Leningrad Artyom's car breaks down and he goes into an isolated farmhouse to get help. Artyom gets to talking with the farmhouse owner, Alexey (Aleksei Serebryakov). The two drink together homemade alcohol and argue about faith in God and retribution from sins, the professor defending the Soviet atheist worldview. Artyom also encounters Alexey's wife, Antonina (Natalya Akimova), as well as Sunka (Mikhail Skryabin), a Vietnamese worker working at the farm, who seems to be practically a personal slave of Alexey's, and a third stranger who is not explained at the time. Sunka finally fixes Artyom's car and the professor drives on. Being too drunk, he prefers to return to his brother.

Meanwhile, Valery goes to a party by himself, since his girlfriend (Artyom's niece) needs to study. At the concert Valery meets another female student friend of his named Angelika (Agniya Kuznetsova), the daughter of a high-ranking Communist Party official, and they drink together. After the party, in search of more alcohol, Valery drives with her to a farm of moonshiners, which turns out to be the same farm Artyom had visited earlier. Valery tells Angelika to stay in the car while he gets the alcohol. However, instead of returning directly to the car, he gets drunk senseless with the moonshiner, Alexey. Angelika, waiting in the car, notices that she is being watched by a strange man. She gets scared, and tries to get help from Antonina, who gives the girl a shotgun and hides her in a barn. The stranger, who turns out to be a police officer Captain Zhurov (Aleksei Poluyan), enters the barn and takes away the gun. When Sunka tries to defend the girl, Zhurov murders him, then rapes the girl with a bottle (it appears that he himself is impotent). In the morning he handcuffs her, taking her to his flat in Leninsk, and keeps the girl handcuffed to a bedframe in his bedroom, watched over by his deranged alcoholic mother, while he brings in a local small-time criminal in to rape her, killing him after he fails to "please" the girl. The girl threatens that her fiancé, who is an army paratrooper, will save her. Captain Zhurov finds out, however, that her fiance had just been killed in Afghanistan. He arranges to have the zinc-lined coffin shipped to his apartment where he opens it and throws the corpse on the bed next to the screaming girl.

Alexey the moonshiner is arrested for the killing of his Sunka. Captain Zhurov visits Alexey in his cell and convinces him to take the blame for the crime in return for some unexplained earlier favors. Alexey gets a visit from his wife Antonina and explains to her why he has to agree to confess. Antonina meets Artyom, the professor whose testimony might exonerate her husband, but Artyom refuses to testify since that would jeopardize his academic career. Alexey is convicted, sentenced to the death penalty, and summarily executed. Antonina takes a shotgun and goes to Zhurov's apartment, where she encounters screaming Angelica still chained to the bed next to the rotting corpses. She shoots and kills Zhurov, then walks out without attempting to help the girl. Meanwhile, Artyom enters a church and asks to be baptized. In the last scenes Valery (who escaped the entire affair unscathed and without letting anyone know that he knows anything), is shown discussing business propositions with a friend of his (the son of Artyom, Slava). The two are excited about the amount of money that can be made in the disintegrating country.

Filming

Filming was carried out in Cherepovets, Novaya Ladoga, Staraya Ladoga, Vyborg and Pskov[4]

Soundtrack
  • «Ariel» — In the land of magnolias (Russian: "В краю магнолий" V krayu magnoliy)
  • «Zemlyane» — Grass by the Home (Russian: Трава у дома, Trava u doma)
  • «DK » — New turn
  • «Kola Beldy» — I'll take you to the tundra
  • «Afric Simone» — Hafanana
  • «Pesniary» — Vologda
  • «Kino» — There is time, but no money

Reception

Cargo 200 has an approval rating of 81% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews, and an average rating of 6.75/10.[5]

Wally Hammond from Time Out gave the film a mostly positive review, stating, "Whether this superbly-acted, finely-directed, vision of hell is intended as a despairing state-of-the-nation address or a shocking spirital wake-up call is unclear; what is certain, it's certainly provides this year's grizzliest cinematic ghost-ride".[6] Vadim Rizov from Village Voice gave the film a positive review, praising the film's direction, performances, and its ability to hold its tension throughout its running time, calling it, "an unflinching portrait of the grim vileness of Soviet Russia in 1984".[7] According to David Auerbach, the film is not a true story as claimed, but is based on William Faulkner's novel Sanctuary, which was set in Mississippi in 1929.[8]

Awards

Won:

Nominated:

References
  1. «Груз 200»: жестокое кино Балабанова «не рекомендовано» телеканалам Archived 2007-07-11 at the Wayback Machine, svobodanews.ru, June 06, 2007 (in Russian)
  2. Алексей Балабанов: нормы не существует Archived 2008-04-23 at the Wayback Machine, gazeta.ru, May 24, 2007 (in Russian)
  3. Andrew Osborn, From Russia, Without Love: New Movie Slams Soviet Union, Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2007
  4. "WebCite query result". www.webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 2013-05-20. Retrieved 2020-04-21.
  5. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cargo_200
  6. Hammond, Wally. "Cargo 200, directed by Alexei Balabanov". Time Out.com. Wally Hammond. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  7. Rizov, Vadim. "Cargo 200 an Unflinching, Quasi-Comedic Portrait of 1984 Russia". Village Voice.com. Vadim Rizov. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  8. Auerbach, David (2012-06-04). "Cargo 200: Blurred Spaces". The Quarterly Conversation. Archived from the original on 2019-04-25. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  9. "Rotterdam Film Festival". Archived from the original on 2010-11-14. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  10. "2007". Russian Guild of Film Critics. Archived from the original on 2017-05-12. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
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