4

This is the kind of craaazy-ass movie you want/expect from Russia, a disturbing portrait of country whose past has infected its future in such a way that nihilism seems to be the order of the day. It's the debut film from Ilya Khrjanovsky, and the guy displays a talent for arresting imagery that keeps him in good company with his country's cinematic forebearers. There wasn't a weirder film released commercially in the US in 2006, I'll wager.

"A film to experience rather than understand, this bleak blend of Dostoevsky and Peter Greenaway will fascinate those prepared to surrender to its macabre absurdism."

Viewed April 25, 2016.

Haunting, terrifying, mystifying and entertaining. Four adjectives, for a bold debut film which takes us on a predominantly thematic journey into a forgotten industrial backwater of Russia, and shocks us with a story combining fantasy, horror and science fiction. Tarkovskian in the unescapable reality of its science fiction; also in its stumbling voyages through muddy, foggy forests and swamps. It's a tough watch, for sure, but thought-provoking and undiluted as a glass of farmer's vodka.

"Exhilarating, infuriating, mesmerizing, baffling, and out-and-out crazy, 4 certainly doesn't lack for ambition and outrageousness." - Nick Schager

I have no idea what I have just watched but it was absolutely shit.