‘Schastye
Moe’ is the original name for this ultra-bleak
Russian movie and somehow something got lost in the translation, as no way can it be called My Joy (or anyone else’s joy for that matter).
Tough to fathom out, its actually a series of single
scenarios, some that have a linking thread, and others that seemingly have no
connection with anything else at all.
For example, during the opening credits a body is crudely buried in
concrete on a construction site, and is never referred to at all throughout the next two hours.
(I think) the story is essentially about the journey
of Georgy a truck driver as he drives his load through contemporary Ukraine and
encounters some very diverse and brutal incidents. Some occur back in World War 2 somehow when he encounters soldiers
returning from the Front (I’ve still no idea if there were meant to be ghosts)
and others happen after he was the victim of a vicious attack and then becomes
a deaf mute imprisoned by a gypsy woman as her sex slave. (NO, that is not why it is called 'My Joy’!)
Sergei Loznitsa the writer/director is an experienced documentarian and I concluded after the final shootout scene when Georgy can
take no more and becomes a deranged killer that, in his debut feature film, Mr. Loznitsa intended this to be a searing indictment of the sheer mindless violence, brutality
and innate corruption of (Russian) society.
I sat through to the bitter end as I was determined to
at least discover why this movie had received such rave reviews from every
major critic (but me) and I failed.
Bitterly. If you manage it,
please let me know.
★★★★
★★★★
