Cargo 200

Cargo 200 ("Gruz 200") is a controversial Russian movie, shot in 2007 by Aleksei Balabanov that depicts late Soviet society as hell on earth. Name of the film (Cargo 200) is a cryptonym used by the Soviet authorities for dead Russian soldiers who were shipped from the war in Afghanistan. The action is set during culmination of the war in 1984, invoking the dystopian novel by George Orwell [http://www.svobodanews.ru/Article/2007/06/06/20070606093845490.html] [http://www.gazeta.ru/culture/2007/05/24/a_1725034.shtml] [ [http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118239157195142942-IU9d8YtYY60ql73ntlcL7Z3L5ng_20070720.html From Russia, Without Love: New Movie Slams Soviet Union] , By ANDREW OSBORN, Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2007 ] .

Plot

Cargo 200, a film directed by Aleksei Balabanov, in 2007 revolves around events of political turmoil within Russia during the dissolution of the Communist Government. The film starts out in a Ural area in Russia. A teenager, the son of Artem a Marxist Professor in a university played by Leonid Gromov, is a heavy partier. The boy sets off with a female student named Angelika from a prominent university, played by Agniya Kuznetsova who is also the daughter of a high-ranking Communist Official. In search for more alcohol, the boy brings her to a farm of alcoholic exporters. What seems to be the owner, is a convicted murderer, who argues with the boy's father in a previous occasion about retribution from sins and his belief in God. Behind the scenes a stranger, a housewife named Antonina played by Natalya Akimova, and a Vietnamese farmer work communally at the farm. In a previous scene, the boy's father's car breaks down, where he visits the isolated farmhouse of which he gets help for by the Vietnamese farmer. The Marxist professor denounces god, hampering the faith of the drunk murderer, of which afterwards the son stops by with his temporary date. The political atmosphere of the film depicts a transference from normality to paranoia as the plot thickens.

The plot thickens as the boy passes out and the girl tries to escape. The girl senses bad vibes from the residents and in turn hides in a barn with advice from the housewife. The stranger, revealed to be a army official, kills the Vietnamese farmer and goes after the girl bringing her to a secluded place in a heavily industrialized autonomous region of Russia. The kidnapped girl's boyfriend who was killed by order of the disguised stranger who serves as some sort of army official in the Afghan War was revealed to be planned. This is where all of the girl's hope of being saved turns to the worst point in the film. The lieutenant orders the murder of her dead boyfriend, a Russian Soldier serving in Afghanistan, to be shipped to his apartment where he displaces it next to the screaming girl. The murderer is blamed for the killing at which this time he gets killed by more army officials and the old men inspecting incoming shipment get arrested. At the very end of the movie, Antonina, who originally new of the intentions of her husband finds his apartment and murders him. The last scene dissolves with the friendly partier finding another way to get drunk. During the early 80's Soviet Russia was feeling the pinch of Communism and in its economy was on the grip of corruption due to the Afghanistan War. The title Cargo 200, was inspired by the Cargo shipments named after the dead soldiers in Afghanistan. The story is a dramatic thriller and a supposed conspiratorial depiction of the atmospheric tensions within the Soviet Union at the time.

References

Links

English

* [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934529.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 Reviewed at Venice Film Festival]
* [http://www.kinokultura.com/2007/18r-gruz.shtml Review by KinoKultura]
* [http://www.rusfilm.pitt.edu/cargo.php Review by Rusfilm]
* [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/420043/Cargo-200/overview Review in New York Times]

Russian

* [http://www.gruz200.ru/main/ Official site of the movie]
* [http://www.seance.ru/blog/year1984 Reviews of Russian critiques about the movie]
* [http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2007/color23/09.html Interview with author] , Novaya gazeta
* [http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/kulshok/52541/ Discussion] at Echo of Moscow