MovieChat Forums > Gruz 200 (2007) Discussion > This is a dark dark movie...

This is a dark dark movie...


I saw this movie at a film fest a few weeks ago and it was the most *beep* up film I've ever seen in my life. I'm usually pretty unfazed by awful stuff in movies, but this...

It's probably not so bad if you know that a bunch of awful stuff is going to happen, but I knew nothing about it beforehand. It's so twisted, I don't even have words for it.

Looking back, I can see some of the film's "larger significance," but it's so *beep* evil that I can't possibly say I like it.

Who else has seen this? Did anyone like it?

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I saw this movie in a theater in St. Petersburg. Yea, I speak russian...

It was an awesome awesome movie. terrifying, gripping, brilliant, a little funny. Kept remembering the images and horrifying *beep* days and weeks and months later. I'm obsessed with finding the soundtrack (it features an awesome song by Kino I MUST find, any one know what it is? The last scene of the film is a Kino concert and they show Victor Tzoi playing on the stage in the background..)

I can't wait til it comes out on dvd and I can expose all my friends to it so they can get the full effect.

An awesome, horrifying film. And its all a metaphor for the soviet union, all of you people who didn't understand. Look at the soviet character, president of atheism! each character is representative of a different aspect of the russian character. They talk about Andropov's death. etc, etc, its a great movie which requires a little thought and will scar you for life.

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just checked up on this thread - thank you, luxurycat!

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well, i just saw this movie and i have to say that this is most certainly a movie, not a stage play shot on location as it usually is here in Russia. it has great compositions, great sound, great dialogue, great twists, great everything and this is an exploitation movie. very well acted by everybody: i hated Yuri Stepanov until now, when i saw him play colonel, it just made me realize, that we have some great screen actors, it's just that they're bound to suck in cheap tv-soap operas, because the material is so bad. i liked gruz 200 a lot. it wasn't THAT grievous as they used to say. i expected something else. it's just a very well done exploitation film.

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I agree with you it's a really evil disturbing movie, the images of it were haunting me even several weeks later after having seen it...

I am utterly perplexed and have mixed feelings about it, so I can't really describe if I really like it or don't. The film is not for everyone, you should be somehow prepared to watch it I suppose...

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I also saw it a the LA Film Fest, but I'm gonna agree with Snewhous. In fairness to Ninjascum, the Festival literature presented CARGO 200 as a horror film, going so far as to compare it to TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. I'd say this was a miscalculation on the Festival's part -- anyone who bought a ticket for a "horror film" would surely be disappointed. CARGO 200 was intense and bleak, but calling it a horror film would be like calling IRREVERESIBLE or THE VIRGIN SPRING a horror film. ...But wait ... Ninjascum? Boring and tame? You were longing for something horrible other than "corpse in bed sex"? Was a girl being raped with a bottle not visceral enough? CARGO 200 may not be THE most disturbing movie I've ever seen, but A) that hardly makes it a rip-off and B) that hardly makes it a warm and fuzzy date-movie.

I dig Snewhous's suggestion that each character is metaphorical for aspects of Soviet society. If Captain Zhurov's mother, blind and deaf to brutality around her nation and 10 feet away from her in the next room while she's absorbed in her TV, was not an allegory then I don't know what was?! I'm particulary fond of the very brief moment where, after we've heard other characters refer to Yuri Andropov, we see her watching Konstanin Chernenko give a speach on TV while Mikhail Gorbachev sits to his right. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I took from this moment that, no matter who is in charge, men like Captain Zhurov will continue to be as brutal and dehumanizing as they please. The people who could/should call them into question are too distracted being comatose in their easy chairs.

I wish I hadn't read Snewhous's post before I saw CARGO 200, so I could pat myself on the back for figuring this all out on my own, but what Snewhous said also alerted me to the bizarre element of the totally barren city streets. No need to fill the streets with dozens of extras and lots of picture cars if all those aspects of society are already represented within the characters we've met. This is an area where CARGO 200 succeeds in being scary: like many movies where someone gets victimized, it is claustrophobic while those moments are playing out on screen. But is it also totally agoraphobic once we step outside. There is NO ONE around!! If Angelika had been able to escape Capt. Zhurov, there is no one for her to run to, nowhere for her to run. This may not be scary to anyone who thinks cartoon goofiness like American PG-13 horror is scary, but if you've ever walked down the wrong empty street at the wrong hour of the night, these moments resonate with a primal simplicity that most American "horror" films wish they could achieve!

In the end, I have no idea who I could possibly recommend CARGO 200 to, but I'm glad I saw it. I didn't buy a ticket for a horror movie, I bought a ticket to see something I hadn't seen before, and it delivered on that. Captain Zhurov is one of the purest villains I've seen in ages, in that he has none of the charm or wit of Hollywood villains, and he has none of the emotional or psychological baggage that gets heaped on villains in foreign and American independent films. Like another of my favorite under-rated villains, Albert Ganz in 48 HOURS, Capt. Zhurov is an unrepentant scumbag. I dig any movie that has the honesty to admit that men like him exist.

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That's true. All the characters are metaphorical. They were all part of the Soviet people. Three main women in the movie represent the Motherland itself: a helpless girl being raped, an old woman who doesn't care what happens around her, and an avenger, who suffers until some point and explodes when disturbed. That's one of the deepest and precise understandings of Russia I've ever seen.
It's stupid to call this movie an horror.

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Really now....whats disturbing is cultural. In most countries, this would be considered tame compared to movies like Saw V and Texas chainsaw massacre which would be considered much worse there. It's all relative, there are other themes in the movie that you need to be someone what familiar with to understand. Otherwise this movie would look like a pointless sadistic movie to you. You need to be a little more open if you want to really enjoy foreign movies.

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If you think this film was the most fked up film you've ever seen in your life do yourself a favor and avoid A Serbian Film, Irreversible, Snuff 102, and the Snowtown Murders.

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Yes, this movie is very dark.. but I loved every second of it! It's probably my favorite Russian movie.

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Any film about "Gruz 200"/"Cargo 200" is probably going to be grim. That's the Russian term for soldiers who arrived in the body bags from the places of military conflicts. Before seeing the film, I was honestly expecting some kind of dark military drama about the war in Afghanistan. I was ready for it. But the actual subject indeed is more shocking and disturbing than one could possibly imagine in advance.

Overall, I think it's a good movie for the right audience. First of all, if you ignore all the possible deep political or philosophical themes, the film is a genuine thriller and quite a powerful one. Next, it captured the life in USSR quite well. And there was none of that Holliwoodesque feel-good ending. While Angellica survived the horror, after the movie you can't help but think about the dark, grim life in the provincial Soviet town that people had led back then and probably still live today. If there was any political meaning to this film at all, it must be a damning critique of the corrupt Soviet system.

You would be shocked, but I think it's a good family film. Adolescents may certainly see it. There is a good educational value for them. Do you really know with whom you're hanging out? Do you still want to ride into the woods with someone you just met in the middle of the night? As for the parents, the message is also simple and educational to them: do you know where are your children right now? Good.

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