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Koktebel on DVD (2003)

Koktebel cover art
Average rating: 65%
1422920181947
3.0
from 242 members
 
Starring: Igor Csernyevics, Vladimir Kucherenko, Gleb Puskepalis, Agrippina Steklova
Director: Boris Khlebnikov, Aleksei Popogrebsky
Studio: ARTIFICIAL EYE
Run time: 102 mins
Certificate: 12
Genres: Drama, World Cinema
Languages: Russian
Subtitles: English
Released: 23/05/2005

Brief synopsis of Koktebel

Following the death of his wife and loss of his job, a Russian engineer sets off from Moscow with his 11 year old son for his sister’s house, in the Black Sea resort of Koktebel. With no money or means of transport, they drift through Russia’s expansive and mesmerising landscape at the mercy of chance. For the father, the journey is an attempt to restore self respect, piece together his broken life and win back the trust of his son. For the boy, the mythic coastal town holds the key to a new life and emancipation. Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebsky’s critically acclaimed, award-winning road movie is a wonderfully acted, delicately observed and beautifully shot drama that has been favourably compared to the work of directors such as Terence Malick, Andrei Tarkovsky and François Truffaut.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Lovingly photographed by Shandor Berkeshi, the feature debut of co-directors Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebsky is a cross between a folkloric road movie and a post-Communist critique of a once proud nation's struggle to come to terms with the realities of freedom. An eccentric encounter with a drunken hermit and a romantic interlude with a kindly doctor punctuate aviation engineer Igor Chernevich and Gleb Puskepalis's journey south to the Crimea. But it's the taciturn father-son relationship that proves most intriguing, especially once the 11-year-old Puskepalis begins to appreciate that promises are made to be broken. Measured, evocative and melancholic, this is a touching tale well told.

Time Out

This is a road movie of the most mysterious sort. Koktebel a resort town in the Crimea is the holy grail for... Read more on www.timeout.com

Sight & Sound

A magnificent achievement... Thoughtful, tender, often humourous, brilliantly visualised.

See all 6 Critics Reviews »

Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsA lyrical piece of Russian cinema

David Jenkins from Birmingham, England , 14/02/2005

A very subtle and quietly moving film with understated performances, a wonderful use of static camera angles that seem to swell to life with the details packed into the frame and a real insight into Russian life and its strange underbelly of societal misfits. The story involves a drunk father and his son taking a trip from Moscow to Koktebel in the Crimea but the real joy of this movie is not in the storyline but, as with all road movies, it is the sense of incidental beauty-a long zoom shot into a profile of the boy as he looks out a freight train onto the passing trees and the snow covered dirt, or a neat little trick a young lady does with a pack of cigarettes. It is the combination of lyricism and poignant social revelation that marks this film as special

  18 out of 19 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsKoktebel

Marion7 from Essex , 16/06/2005

Thought this was a very good film - slow and atmospheric and the photography was just fantastic. It was almost like watching stills. A different experience than the usual run of the mill films. Can recommend.

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsSeeing from Above

A customer from London, England , 24/07/2005

Lyrical and Beautiful. Perfect and elliptical. Magic. A film to feel; the script leads us, along with incandescent images, along the road a young boy and his father travel as they try to get to Crimea. Director of Photography, the Directors, music and actors all come together to create a sublime experience.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsvery filmic

A customer from Nembudziya, Zimbabwe , 10/05/2007

There is something in this film that no book, photograph or painting could do. I liked it because it gave me a sense of place and placelessness at the same time. That flashing radio outside the toilet was the main moment for me! It's dreams and melancholy as well as showing something of what's going on in these places and people's lives.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 4 starsFor fans of cinema only

McClennan from St Helens , 25/08/2005

Russian road movie about a man and his son's journey to Crimea. With minimal dialogue it's not to everyone's taste, however some of the cinematography is top drawer. The film reminded me of The Return which was very good too. I'm interested to see what these two directors do next because although this film wasn't quite as good as The Return it was definitely interesting for me.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsFathers and sons - what are they like?

oztvc from Whitstable , 02/06/2005

Very much an exploration of the father / son relationship; it's strengths, weaknesses and failings disected via the generic 'road movie' format with the journey they undertake and beautiful scenery they travel through acting as a bleak metaphor for their increasingly strained relationship.

A moving and thoughtful film.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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