The Fool (2014 film)
| The Fool | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Yuri Bykov |
| Written by | Yuri Bykov |
| Produced by | Alexey Uchitel Kira Saksaganskaya |
| Starring | Artyom Bystrov Boris Nevzorov Natalia Surkova Kirill Polukhin Yuri Tsurilo Darya Moroz Irina Nizina Alexander Korshunov Maxim Pinsker Sergey Artsibashev Olga Samoshina Elena Panova Ilya Isaev Dmitry Kulitchkov Pyotr Barancheev |
| Cinematography | Kiri Klepalov |
| Edited by | Yuri Bykov |
| Music by | Yuri Bykov |
| Distributed by | Rock Studios Bazelevs Premium Film |
Release dates |
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Running time | 121 minutes |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
The Fool (Russian: Дурак', translit. Durak) is a 2013 Russian drama film written and directed by Yuri Bykov. It was first screened at the 2014 Locarno International Film Festival.
This is the third film of writer and director Yury Bykov.
Background
An explosive combination of highly personal moral drama and a wider, scathing portrait of a country in which corruption and greed seem to be the only shared values left, this well-oiled narrative machine is further aided by a clever ticking-clock mechanism that actually ratchets up the tension the longer the characters’ vodka-soaked, blame-game speeches are allowed to go on.
Plot
A Russian plumber, Dima Nikitin, is also a municipal repair-crew chief in an unnamed Russian town that’s not even 40 years old, though some of the city’s housing blocks are already in a grave state of disrepair. A routine burst bathroom pipe in one of the rickety communal housing buildings unearths a much larger problem, as the exterior wall behind the pipe has cracked and started to shift. When Nikitin goes outside to inspect the matter, he realizes the building has fissured from the ground right up to the ninth and last floor.
Though it’s not officially part of his district, Dima’s sense of personal responsibility gets the better of him in the middle of the night and he decides to go and talk to the higher-ups, especially after he calculates how much time is left for a construction of that height before it splits in two and crumbles — which turns out to be less than 24 hours.
The knowledge that the 800 inhabitants might go down with the building has Dima racing to the 50th birthday party of Nina Galaganova, the town’s imperious mayor, to convince her to evacuate the building. He thus bypasses his direct boss, the corrupt inspector of public housing, Federotov, who only supplied a coat of paint the last time he received funds for a major overhaul, preferring to funnel the money into work on his daughter's personal residence. Nina’s extended, behind-closed-doors meeting with Dima, Federotov and heads of several other departments, including the fire brigade, become a nervous meeting but it soon becomes clear that the worst fears of Dima’s wife about the city council’s deep-seated dishonesty and corruption are true. The feverish gathering takes place in a meeting room next to the hotel restaurant where Nina’s birthday party is still in full swing, with the thumping music filtering into the room like a severe headache that just won’t go away.
Cast
- Artyom Bystrov as Dima Nikitin
- Natalia Surkova as Nina Galaganova
- Boris Nevzorov as Federotov
Awards and Nominations
- Best Screenplay, Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr,in Sochi (Russia), 2014
- Best actor to Artyom Bystrov, Film Festival Locarno, Locarno (Switzerland), 2014