Aleksey BALABANOV
Алексей БАЛАБАНОВ
Alekseï BALABANOV
Russia, 2007, 100mn 
Colour, fiction
Gruz 200
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Груз 200

 

 Freight 200 / Cargo 200

 Cargaison 200

Other titles : Cargo 200
 
Directed by : Aleksey BALABANOV (Алексей БАЛАБАНОВ)
Writing credits : Aleksey BALABANOV (Алексей БАЛАБАНОВ)
 
Cast
Konstantin BALAKIREV (Константин БАЛАКИРЕВ)
Aleksandr BASHIROV (Александр БАШИРОВ) ...Logeur des alcooliques
Leonid BITSHEVINE (Леонид БИЧЕВИН) ...Valera
Leonid GROMOV (Леонид ГРОМОВ) ...Artiom
Dmitry KUBASOV (Дмитрий КУБАСОВ)
Agnia KUZNETSOVA (Агния КУЗНЕЦОВА) ...Anjelina
Aleksandr MOSIN (Александр МОСИН)
Anjelika NEVOLINA (Анжелика НЕВОЛИНА) ...Femme d'Artiom
Aleksey POLUYAN (Алексей ПОЛУЯН) ...Jourov
Irina RAKSHINA (Ирина РАКШИНА) ...Une alcoolique
Aleksey SEREBRIAKOV (Алексей СЕРЕБРЯКОВ) ...Alekseï
Mikhail SKRIABIN (Михаил СКРЯБИН)
Yuri STEPANOV (Юрий СТЕПАНОВ) ...Mikhail
 
Cinematography : Aleksandr SIMONOV (Александр СИМОНОВ)
Production design : Pavel PARKHOMENKO (Павел ПАРХОМЕНКО), Nadezhda VASILYEVA (Надежда ВАСИЛЬЕВА)
Editing : Tatyana KUZMICHOVA (Татьяна КУЗЬМИЧЕВА)
Produced by : Sergey SELIANOV (Сергей СЕЛЬЯНОВ)
Companies : CTV (Кинокомпания СТВ)
Film revenue in Russia : 0.57 million dollars
Release Date in Russia : 14/06/2007
 
format : 35 mm
Sites : IMDb, Chapaev.media

Awards :
Best film Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2007

Plot synopsis
Drama.
USSR 1984. On the eve of perestroika, during the Afghan war. Military planes with zinc coffins (cargo 200) do not bypass the small provincial town of Leninsk. A young girl lives here; she is in love with a lad who serves in Afghanistan. He perishes. The militiaman Zhurov, a typical Soviet madman, is in love with the girl. After a disco, the daughter of the Communist Party committee’s secretary goes missing. There are no witnesses, and the culprit is not found. On the same evening, a gruesome murder happens in a house on the town’s periphery. The house owner is guilty of the crime. Both investigations are led by police captain Zhurov...
Source : www.moscowfilmfestival.ru
 

commentaries
Рогожкин и Балабанов [Rogojkine et Balabanov], Nikita KARTSEV, kinoart.ru, 2022
Horreur et tragédie: huit films russo-soviétiques pour une soirée d’Halloween réussie, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2022
Les personnages les plus effrayants des films soviétiques et russes, Kira LISSITSKAÎA, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2022
The Most Significant Russian Films of the Last Decade [2005-2016], Academic Studies Press, 2019
RUSSIA BEYOND : Six films sombres d’Alexeï Balabanov à voir absolument, Oleg EGOROV, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2018
Cinema in the mirror of the Soviet and Russian film criticism, Aleksandr FEDOROV, academia.edu, 2017
12 films d'horreur cultes russes, Daria DONINA, larussiedaujourdhui.fr, 2012
The Self and the Other in Recent Russian Cinema, Birgit BEUMERS, kinokultura.com, 2010
Трупы преткновения, Viktor MATIZEN, seance.ru, 2008
Aleksei Balabanov : Cargo 200 (Gruz 200, 2007), Anthony ANEMONE, kinokultura.com, 2007
 
1984 : in a small corrupt town within the USSR, a scientist, a psychopathic policeman, a farmer and his daughter drown their sorrows in vodka, thus beginning their spiral into hell. Abduction, rape and murder pile up in this furious thriller that allows Alexei Balabanov to return to the pre-perestroika period of his country and to evoke the Afghanistan war. The director denounces the era’s violence and anarchy, refusing to fall back into an easy nostalgia, 23 years on, when dealing with the Soviet period. Balabanov at his best. The eleventh film by Alexei Balabanov is the longest awaited and probably most spoken about film of his career. From its announcement in script form to the premiere at the Sochi film festival, the film has given cause for emotional reactions. It is a provocation à la Balabanov par excellence. It seems like all the elements of previous films such as Brother, Of Freaks and Men and Dead Man's Bluff can be doubled here. This harsh pre-Perestroika thriller is about a maniacal policeman, his mother, the local party leader and his daughter and many others in Leninsk, a small Soviet town. It is set to the background of the Soviet-Afghan war. Balabanov wanted to draw a picture of the dying 'body' of the USSR and make a statement against the current rise of Soviet nostalgia. A small newspaper article became an inspiration for this mirror of the moral decay of the period. The daughter of the local communist party leader disappears without a trace after leaving a disco club. During the same evening a cruel murder is committed on the outskirts of the town. Both cases are investigated by the local police captain.
As some of the actors with whom Balabanov cooperated before refused to become a part of this harsh drama, he has successfully collaborated with newcomers and less known faces. The final picture of the times seems to be painfully realistic, almost surrealistic. (LC)
Source : www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- War in contemporary Russian cinema, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- Russian Film Festival For Another Russia, Paris (France), 2021
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2013
- Bradford International Film Festival, Bradford (United Kingdom), 2013
- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2012
- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2011
- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2009
- Melbourne International Film Festival - MIFF, Melbourne (Australia), 2008
- Sofia International Film Festival, Sofia (Bulgaria), 2008
- Hong-Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong (China), 2008
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), 2008
- Festival of Central and Eastern Film , Wiesbaden (Germany), 2008
- The Dublin International Film Festival, Dublin (Ireland), 2008
- Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam (Netherlands), 2008
- Transilvania International Film Festival : TIFF, Cluj Napoca (Romania), 2008
- International Film Festival of the Commonwealth Countries "Moscow Premiere", Moscow (Russia), 2008
- Belgrade International Film Festival, Belgrade (Serbia), 2008
- Clevelant International Film Festival, Cleveland (USA), 2008
- Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Tessaloniki (Greece), 2007
- Festival Russian cinema in Israel, Tel Aviv (Israel), 2007
- Venice International Film Festival, Venice (Italy), 2007
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2007
- "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2007
- Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2007
- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2007
- Film Festival of CIS countries, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia "Kinoshock", Anapa (Russia), 2007
- "Vyborg" Russian Film Festival (formerly ''A Window to Europe''), Vyborg (Russia), 2007
- International Film Festival Bratislava, Brastislava (Slovakia), 2007
- The Times BFI London Film Festival, London (United Kingdom), 2007

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