jjbul
Personally I didn't find the boy's acting particularly effective, especially in the scene when he has left his father behind. The brilliance of this film is that each scene clearly expresses an idea and the audience is able to understand and sympathize with emotions and events that would be hard to put into words. For me the landscape seemed oppressive and gloomy. Of course in some ways it's beautiful but that's only a perception, and if the audience enters into the spirit of the characters then i don't think they'd find the scenery attractive. I also found the drawn out shots demonstrated the immensity of everything, the length of the voyage, the effort that the characters have to make everyday just to keep going. The film is an amazing commentary on Russia, it revives a lot of the Communist culture (especially the belief in ESP) but also shows the new Russia in the form of the boy. A boy who is not a totally sympathetic character but who shows incredible determination.
shneur
A film like this just couldn't be made in America, where action must occur at a slam-bang pace, and children must be either pitifully ignorant of life or else caricatures of evil. Here, there is exquisite attention to detail -- a countryside, a vase of flowers, and long periods with no dialog at all where a mood is simply allowed to develop. The passage of time may not be in equivalent "real time," yet it passes noticeably. And what a skilled performance by Gleb Puskepalis, a boy with, as often seems to be the case, a distinguished acting history in legitimate theater. His character is master of his fate and of the plot, and he himself is master of the camera and the cast. I like this film especially because it is the boy who is rational, determined and self-directed, while the adults, as in reality, are continually made fools by their alcohol, aggression, and just wanting "to f*** each other" all the time. Bravo!
Scorching
MILD SPOILERSRoads to Koktebel is the story of a father and his son who travel to Koktobel in the Crimean region after a tragedy in their family. As they travel from place to place they meet many people and learn how to survive through their journey.I was expecting so much more from this film as there have been quite a lot of good reviews for the said film. Unfortunately I found the basic pacing of the film very slow and some of the scenes really were dragging and seemed disjointed. The story was ordinary which I think contributed to the nature of the film. The theme of fatherhood and family is always a good platform to make a good story. However the writers were unable to do that. I liked the performances of the actors especially the young son who was pretty good. It's a shame that the material I felt was too poor and all of his good work went down the drain.
