Territoriya (2015)

Territoriya: Directed by Aleksandr Melnik. With Konstantin Lavronenko, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Egor Beroev, Evgeniy Tsyganov. It happened in the sixties, during the political thaw in the Soviet Union… but our story unfolds in the coldest terrain of the country. It was an unexplored and unbeaten terrain of boundless ice-field and forbidding rocks. This was the proper place for real men and real romantics. Our story is about the geologists prospecting gold in the Extreme North.

“This is a truly epic film both in duration, the depth of itu0026#39;s characters and the scale of itu0026#39;s setting. Russian films are often u0026#39;Loveu0026#39; stories dealing with different aspects of Eros, Philios, and Agape; so this is an Epic Love Story, about Geologists surveying Siberia (the Territory) in the Soviet 60u0026#39;s. Just as in u0026#39;War and Peaceu0026#39; the lives of many people are followed through tragedy and triumph, and all of these individuals are fleshed out in exquisite detail. We see their flaws and strengths tested under the harshest of conditions, and in a spectacular terrain. There is a u0026#39;Dersu Uzalau0026#39; quality to the film; a native hunter, the force of nature, bonding, testing, love, physical tests, the triumph and failures – itu0026#39;s raw and beautiful.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Cinematography, apart from a couple of rugged drone shots is just breathtaking, especially on a big screen. Casting, Acting, Locations, Sound, Editing are all superb. What the Director/Writer has achieved with the Script is vast in itu0026#39;s scope, hence I describe the film as an u0026#39;Epicu0026#39; for good reason. The film falters only for moments; once it gets itu0026#39;s rhythm up it becomes totally mesmerizing and as for the ending – well, I loved the ending – itu0026#39;s really well written. This is no Hollywood u0026#39;Heroes Journeyu0026#39; film – nobody is a u0026#39;Handsome Herou0026#39; – all are hard, obsessive, damaged, damned, fragile, beautiful manifestations of humanity. And thatu0026#39;s what this film has in spades: Humanity. I give it Nine Stars – I rate it higher than u0026#39;Dersu Uzalau0026#39; which is a film that I love dearly. At two and a half hours youu0026#39;ll need patience and a big screen but it wonu0026#39;t disappoint. Extremely Russian. Extremely Poetic and philosophical. A Visual feast. Epic. October 2015.”