Dir: Alexey Balabanov, Russia 2007, 86mins
Alexey Balabanov's eleventh feature is one of his bleakest. Set in provincial Russia in 1984 as the USSR enters its death throes, it portrays a society that is sickly, violent and cynical. The title refers to the name given to corpses of Russian soldiers being flown home in regular consignments from the war in Afghanistan. Shot in grey, desaturated colours, the film expertly recreates the Soviet Union of the mid-1980s.

Russian critics have been extremely enthusiastic about Cargo 200, calling it 'the most honest Russian film in years' and likening it to the work of Fassbinder. The international response in Venice (where it opened Venice Days) was more muted. This is clearly a film that will have far more resonance for Russian audiences, who lived through the traumatic era shown here, that for international cinemagoers, who are likely to be startled by its unremittingly bleak tone.

Balabanov depicts a world in which the police shoot and beat up suspects; where rape and kidnapping are rife; where men drink themselves into a stupor with vodka and where the sense of resentment and disaffection is all pervasive. As the society crumbles, old ladies sit watching party officials give long-winded speeches on ancient TV screens while the teenagers listen to punk music or try to come up with get-rich-quick schemes.

Thanks to such widely sold earlier features as Of Freaks And Men and Brother, Balabonov is one of the few contemporary Russian filmmakers with an international reputation. Cargo 200 is likely to receive plenty of festival play. It may also pique the curiosity of adventurous art house distributors. The film will certainly intrigue anyone interested in the mood in the Soviet Union in its declining days.

Balabanov brings a grim intensity to the storytelling. Nonetheless, morbid and often repulsive, this is in no sense a crowd-pleaser. What makes it even more unsettling is the claim in front of the credits that the story is based on real events.

As the action begins, two middle-aged men - an academic and a Colonel - are discussing changing times in the Soviet Union. As their conversation makes clear, there has been great unrest since the death of former Soviet leader Andropov. The gap between the generations is lengthening - the students despise their parents. The war in Afghanistan is going very badly.

Young half-Georgian Valera (Leonid Bichevin) attends a disco where he meets Angelika (Agniya Kuznetsova), daughter of the Secretary of the Regional Party Committee. He drives off with her in tow. Meanwhile, the academic Artyom (Leonid Gromov) is trying to get home but his car has broken down in the countryside. He sees lights and finds a house where Alexey (Alexey Serebryakov) invites him to drink vodka and to discuss religion and politics. Soon, Valera turns up here too with Angelika.

At this point, the film lurches toward horror movie territory. As the men drink themselves stupid, Angelika is forced to hide in a barn. She is discovered here by one of them and is sexually assaulted and kidnapped. As she endures a series of horrific experiences, we see footage of Soviet corpses being flown home from Afghanistan.

Violence contaminates every part of the society. The poice don't think twice about beating up or killing a suspect. The judiciary blithely condemns a man to death. Meanwhile, Angelika ends up handcuffed to an iron bed with the corpse of of an Afghan veteran beside her.

Early in his career, Balabanov directed adaptations of Kafka (The Castle) and of Samuel Beckett (Happy Days) as well as the subversive and kinky Of Freaks And Men. Some of the same absurdism that characterised those films is also found here, although Cargo 200 seems on the surface to be realist fare. Then again, the director's point appears to be that in its lawlessness and chaos, the Russia of 1984 was every bit as grotesque as anything dreamed up in the realms of modernist fiction.

Balabanov knows how to crank up the tension and create a menacing atmosphere. Sound editing is inventive, with engines forever purring in the background. The filmmakers throw in shots of steam-belching factories, cramped and squalid apartments and scrubby countryside, in the process making 1984 Russia look overwhelmingly grim and oppressive.

Production companies/backers
CTB Film Company (RU)
Federal Agency For Culture and Cinema

International Sales
Intercinema (RU)
+7 (495) 255 90 52

Producer
Sergey Selyanov

Screenplay
Alexey Balabanov

Cinematography
Alexander Simonov

Editor
Tayana Kuzmicheva

Art Direction
Pavel Parkhomenko

Cast
Alexey Serebryakov
Leonid Gromov
Yuri Stepanov
Agniya Kuznetsova

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