Miss-Delectable
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- Apr 18, 2004
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The New Anatolian
Since the golden era of the great Russian film maker Eisenstein Russian contemporary directors have been producing unforgettable masterpieces in film art, and are continuing to do so. Director Valery Todorovsky's 1998 film which can be translated as the Country of Deaf People original name is "Strana glukhikh" is no less than a masterpiece in its use of lights, and color, with its perfect acting and talented directing in its 105 minutes entirety.
As the film opens, one can immediately tell that artistically there will not be a moment of boredom, but the promise of plenty of action and shocking surprise are the basic elements that make a good film, in my opinion. There is always a different color and a different light shed on the scene, accompanying a slightly out of focus camera, definitely by choice. There are 2 stories in the film, intertwined, the first about the Russian mafia, its freedom of illegal action, as a force within the newly liberal state, free-for-all in this new Russian society. The other story, or I would say the main story, is the chance meeting and mutual love, with some lesbian overtones, of Rita and her lover Jaja. These are two stray girls out on the streets, with no money, with no direction as to which way to go, in the post Soviet capital Moscow. The girls are played with great professionalism by charming Khulpan Khamatova and equally convincing Dina Korzun. The two are physically and emotionally contrasting types, for example Jaja is tall with black hair and Rita is small and blonde. The central character Jaja is somewhat deaf, but no dumb. She reads lips and talks as if she has a normal hearing capacity.
This odd couple take refuge in the studio of an absent sculptor friend. Rita has a mafia connected gambler boyfriend, who is in trouble with his gang and is marked out for death because of his debt. As he is caught and tortured, Rita finally finds him in a bad state and brings him back to nurse and revive in the studio where they are sheltering. Here the intrigue in the scenario unveils as he becomes a bone of contention between the two lesbian women. As they are penniless, they decide to try streetwalking, funnily enough without much luck. The young man's presence in the studio, now back to his virile self, creates much jealousy all round, so much so that Jaja asks him to leave the studio while at the same time encouraging him to sleep with her, so that she can overpower him which she finally does, throwing him out in the absence of Rita her lover.
Mafia action in the film, and the scenes of gun fighting, in my opinion is only the salt and pepper, or seasoning, of the main story between two girls and a man. Rita makes some money, only to be gambled away by her boyfriend, but what is most interesting and truly beautiful in the masterful script is that Rita learns the sign language of the deaf from Jaja so that the two girls can travel to the imaginary far away oasis, a tropical land of the deaf, where there is permanent summer with no freezing cold, where there is no money, where everything is free, a Shangri-La. This may also be a comment, a symbolic yearning for Soviet times. It is a heart-warming story of two destitute and helpless women who find solace and true love in each other in an outrageously hostile world, signed by lady director Valery Todorovsky, which may well an autobiographical account.
Since the golden era of the great Russian film maker Eisenstein Russian contemporary directors have been producing unforgettable masterpieces in film art, and are continuing to do so. Director Valery Todorovsky's 1998 film which can be translated as the Country of Deaf People original name is "Strana glukhikh" is no less than a masterpiece in its use of lights, and color, with its perfect acting and talented directing in its 105 minutes entirety.
As the film opens, one can immediately tell that artistically there will not be a moment of boredom, but the promise of plenty of action and shocking surprise are the basic elements that make a good film, in my opinion. There is always a different color and a different light shed on the scene, accompanying a slightly out of focus camera, definitely by choice. There are 2 stories in the film, intertwined, the first about the Russian mafia, its freedom of illegal action, as a force within the newly liberal state, free-for-all in this new Russian society. The other story, or I would say the main story, is the chance meeting and mutual love, with some lesbian overtones, of Rita and her lover Jaja. These are two stray girls out on the streets, with no money, with no direction as to which way to go, in the post Soviet capital Moscow. The girls are played with great professionalism by charming Khulpan Khamatova and equally convincing Dina Korzun. The two are physically and emotionally contrasting types, for example Jaja is tall with black hair and Rita is small and blonde. The central character Jaja is somewhat deaf, but no dumb. She reads lips and talks as if she has a normal hearing capacity.
This odd couple take refuge in the studio of an absent sculptor friend. Rita has a mafia connected gambler boyfriend, who is in trouble with his gang and is marked out for death because of his debt. As he is caught and tortured, Rita finally finds him in a bad state and brings him back to nurse and revive in the studio where they are sheltering. Here the intrigue in the scenario unveils as he becomes a bone of contention between the two lesbian women. As they are penniless, they decide to try streetwalking, funnily enough without much luck. The young man's presence in the studio, now back to his virile self, creates much jealousy all round, so much so that Jaja asks him to leave the studio while at the same time encouraging him to sleep with her, so that she can overpower him which she finally does, throwing him out in the absence of Rita her lover.
Mafia action in the film, and the scenes of gun fighting, in my opinion is only the salt and pepper, or seasoning, of the main story between two girls and a man. Rita makes some money, only to be gambled away by her boyfriend, but what is most interesting and truly beautiful in the masterful script is that Rita learns the sign language of the deaf from Jaja so that the two girls can travel to the imaginary far away oasis, a tropical land of the deaf, where there is permanent summer with no freezing cold, where there is no money, where everything is free, a Shangri-La. This may also be a comment, a symbolic yearning for Soviet times. It is a heart-warming story of two destitute and helpless women who find solace and true love in each other in an outrageously hostile world, signed by lady director Valery Todorovsky, which may well an autobiographical account.