When the fantastic “Petrov’s Flu” breaks out on a crowded bus, a nightmare of bodies colliding and babbling unfolds. Sweaty and unsteady, he makes his way through a wave of complaining other passengers. Then a man drags him off the bus, someone hands him a gun, and Petrov suddenly joins the firing squad mowing down the prisoners. And he gets back on the bus and rejoins the raucous horde from which he never quite escapes. Welcome to Russia!
The next two and a half hours are this playful, chaotic, moderately dazzling film (which 2021 Cannes Film Festival), Petrov (Semyon Sergin) continues to sweat and stagger as he roams the landscape of a derelict city. Fierce, often made of plaster, he is sick, and his world is one of ominous faces, soupy gloom, and violent human comedy. It’s not clear why he’s rambling. However, while he wanders, he keeps falling into strange reverie as he sees friends and drinks and drinks. It’s unclear at first if he’s trying to escape reality or if he’s trying to escape.
Much of what happens in “Petrov’s Flu” is deliberate and joyful destabilization. It takes place over a fairly compressed period of a day or two (probably!), but includes several long flashbacks that extend the overall time frame by decades. The story is relatively simple, but Petrov travels through strange and sometimes hellish realms, invoking Odysseus and Leopold his Bloom in each of the underworlds. Petrov can be in one place and out in another.
In recent years, director Kirill Serebrennikov is best known abroad for his troubles with the Russian government. In 2017, he was placed under house arrest for embezzling about $2 million.Prices was seen In retaliation from the Kremlin for Serebrennikov’s work and his expressed views on censorship in Russia, aggression abroad, and persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. He was tried and sentenced, but after the remainder of his sentence was suspended in March, Serebrennikov fled to Germany, where he remains.
Watching “Petrov’s Cold”, one cannot help but consider this history. And yet, despite the brutality, violence, and grotesque cries of the hateful and bigoted trolls, the film is anchored by Serebrennikov’s brave and free-spirited filmmaking, so that (as exhausting as it may be) you As the gorgeous, restless camera moves with Petrov, as the walls disappear and the locations melt into one another, it begins to feel like both the character and the director are trying to imagine an exit.
A rough portrait of him emerges as Petrov dreams, drinks and wanders. He has a family, albeit complicated. He says he is divorced but refers to his ex-wife Petrova (Chulpan Hamatova) as his wife. Like Petrov, she experiences horrifying and pernicious fantasies. The pair have a young son, and it seems that all three of them live in the apartment where Petrov draws cartoons. He and Petrova also sleep together, and the sex becomes unsettlingly aggressive, at one point prompting Petrov to get out of bed and paint. The comics he’s been working on Some of his panels seem to reflect what’s happening on screen.
One of the things that makes the film so tense and exciting is that it’s not always clear what’s going on in Petrova and Petrov’s heads. The film is based on the Russian novel “Influenza and Petrov around it” by Alexei Salnikov. Despite the English title, the film regularly shifts from Petrov to Petrova experiencing hallucinations. She pauses like she’s possessed, blacks her eyes for a second, and wields terrible violence. She punches one man in the face and slits another’s throat.
It doesn’t seem to matter whether these dark thoughts come from Petrov or Petrova. The point is that these frenzied visions repeatedly engulf the characters and the film, transporting them from the savage realities of everyday life to worlds of equally savage fantasy. But their dreams are nightmares, original and liberating, grotesque and stifling. remember. And, of course, Petrov is an artist, and I think this, as much as Serebrennikov, who is very talented, will ultimately be his salvation.
Petrov’s flu
Unrated. Russian and English with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes. at the theater.