Plot
A polar station on a desolate island in the Arctic Ocean. Sergei, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel...
Release Year: 2010
Rating: 7.1/10 (2,559 voted)
Critic's Score: 74/100
Director:
Alexei Popogrebsky
Stars: Grigoriy Dobrygin, Sergey Puskepalis, Igor Chernevich
Storyline A polar station on a desolate island in the Arctic Ocean. Sergei, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel, a recent college graduate, are spending months in complete isolation on the once strategic research base. Pavel receives an important radio message and is still trying to find the right moment to tell Sergei, when fear, lies and suspicions start poisoning the atmosphere...
Cast: Grigoriy Dobrygin
-
Pavel
Sergey Puskepalis
-
Sergey
Igor Chernevich
-
Golos po ratsii - Sofronov
(voice)
Artyom Tsukanov
-
Golos po ratsii - Stas
(voice)
Ilya Sobolev
-
Golos po ratsii - Volodya
(voice)
Release Date: 28 January 2011
Filming Locations: Valkarkai Polar Station, Chukotka, Russia
Box Office Details
Budget: $2,500,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $4,968
(USA)
(6 February 2011)
(1 Screen)
Gross: $8,109
(USA)
(13 February 2011)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Shot in exactly three months.
User Review
To tell or not to tell, or How I made one hard decision last summer
Rating: 8/10
"Kak ya provyol etim letom" (Russian title contains intentional
misspell-pin and should be read "How I Cheated (somebody) Last Summer",
not just this school-like "How I Spent Last Summer", chosen for foreign
version) is a Russian psychological drama about two meteorologists, the
old, Sergei, and the young, Pavel, who get stuck on an isolated polar
station for a regular season work and have to deal with each other
...and the information, that arrives from the "big earth".
Visually and stylistically film is flawless. Cinematography with it's
slow-pacing, static long shots and scenic wild nature shots is
adorable. Atmosphere, when time seems ticking slower and cold wind
awaits for you from another side of the door, is on the good level too.
And as a native-speaker, I can say that dialogue-lines are also pretty
decent. Polar station as a place is just a cause for examination of
human communication (so-called "chemistry") in isolated space. Subject
deals with responsibility, instinct of self-preservation, influence of
isolated space to human psychics and importance of experience. I don't
want to spoil your first-time-watching, so I won't go into plot any
further...
Can't name any similarities. Maybe the closest will be: "Breaking the
Waves" meets "Gerry" and "Shutter Island" (no delusions here,
similarity is geographical) along with Russian "Dikoe Pole" (2008) and
maybe even "Kukushka" (2002). Plus some Michael Haneke's style (like
from most recently - though black and white - "Das Weisse Band" with
it's distant human behavior examination). In my opinion, "Kak ya
provyol etim letom" is one of the best Russian movies of the decade
(2000-2010) along with Alexei Balabanov's "Gruz 200", "Morfiy" and
above-mentioned Alexander Rogozhkin's "Kukushka". And yes, it is way
better than Zvyagintsev's pretentious force-fed Tarkovsky-styled issues
"Vozvraschenie" & "Izgnanie".
Don't know how soon those of you who don't speak Russian will be
available to watch this with subtitles or voice-over...
So, if you're often bored with 2-hour non-action movies - don't bother
watching this. Try something more entertaining. But if you're into
slow-paced minimalistic psychological dramas, give it a try. You'll be
aesthetically rewarded.
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