The main novelty of the weekend was the drama “Son” by Florian Zeller – the very one that conquered the world with a film with a similar name “Father”. The domestic manufacturer has prepared for viewers a dock about Donbass “Where is the border?” and the crime drama Chekago. And the director of “Cheburashka” Dmitry Dyachenko returned to the screens with “Rabies”. Izvestia tells what is worth seeing in the cinema this weekend.
“Son” 18+
Directed by: Florian Zeller
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Anthony Hopkins, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath
The final film in Florian Zeller’s trilogy, which includes the yet-to-be-filmed “Mother” and the hit “Father”, has been released. The first picture in the series, starring Anthony Hopkins, received six nominations at the 93rd Oscars and won awards for Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. The Son starred Hugh Jackman, but Hopkins also appears there.
Peter is a successful lawyer from New York. In his second marriage, his newborn son Theo is growing up, and things at work are going uphill. Suddenly, his ex-wife Kate seeks help – their common 17-year-old son Nicholas has not appeared at school for a month and behaves strangely. Peter decides to take Nicholas in, hoping that a change of scenery will help the young man. Despite all efforts, the situation is only getting worse.
The main theme of the film is teenage depression. The young man himself cannot understand what is happening to him, cripples himself and loses interest in life, and his parents notice this too late. The drama also touches on the theme of fathers and children: for Peter’s father, work was more important than family, but Jackman’s hero, on the contrary, wants to be a support for Nicholas.
“Where is the border?” 12+
Director: Alexandra Frank
Cast: Anastasia Mikhailovskaya, Sergei Debizhev, Alexei Poddubny, Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt
This is not the first time Alexandra Frank has addressed the topic of the conflict in Donbass. In 2022, she released the documentary series “Faces of Donbass”, the heroes of which were residents of Donetsk, Mariupol and other cities located near the combat zone. In the same year, her documentary “Donbass. Way home”.
The new picture was filmed directly in the NVO zone, for example, the audience is shown a dilapidated building of the Mariupol Drama Theater. The documentary is based on interviews – actors, filmmakers, military men, musicians and bystanders share their thoughts, memories and opinions about past events. The key questions that Alexandra Frank raises are: why was the military operation necessary and where are the boundaries of personal responsibility and participation of each of us in the tragic history of Donbass?
Chekago 18+
Director: Nikolai Rybnikov
Cast: Danil Steklov, Askar Nigamedzyanov, Eldar Safikanov, Semyon Alyoshin, Mila Ershova, Yuri Kuznetsov, Igor Zhizhikin, Ivan Kokorin, Galina Bezruk, Mose Kurtanidze
Nikita lives in the mining town of Chegarinsk, through which the drug trafficking route passes. The young man is not satisfied with life in the outback, and he decides to move with the girl to Moscow. In a new place, he is going to start a career as a musician. But the move requires money, and Nikita agrees to transport a large consignment of drugs to Krasnoyarsk. Everything does not go according to plan, and the hero, along with his loved ones, is drawn into a criminal story.
At first glance, “Chekago” may seem like another movie about bandits, but it’s not. Fictional Chegarinsk is a collective image of industrial provincial cities. The picture tells about the ambitious youth who oppose the idea “where you were born, there you came in handy.” Young people are trying hard to leave, and for some, drug trafficking becomes an easy way to earn money.
Rabies 18+
Director: Dmitry Dyachenko
Cast: Alexei Serebryakov, Vsevolod Volodin, Evgeny Tkachuk, Georgy Dronov, Anna Ukolova, Kirill Polukhin, Angelina Strechina, Alexander Ustyugov, Ivan Bychkov, Alexander Bulatov
Immediately after Cheburashka, Dmitry Dyachenko returns with a thriller featuring real wolves. At the same time, the animals are world stars who previously “played” in the “Game of Thrones”. Rabies was based on a real case of rabid wolves attacking people in the Amur Region in 2019.
The main character, Igor, faces a prison term, but at large he has unfinished business. His son suffers from drug addiction, and in order to fight off addiction to illegal substances, Igor forcibly takes Vova to a hunting hut. Here he must endure breaking. At this time, an outbreak of rabies among wild animals occurs in the taiga. The heroes find themselves trapped in the middle of the wilderness. Complicating the situation is that they are hunted not only by rabies-infected wolves, and these predators turn out to be much more dangerous.
“Dads vs Moms” 12+
Director: Maxim Malinin
Cast: Roman Postovalov, Anna Churina, Artem Tkachenko, Vladimir Steklov, Yola Sanko, Elizaveta Medvedeva, Sevastyan Bugaev, Elena Balabanova, Artem Kukhteev, Sergei Zhukov
Two families live on the same floor. One day, a conflict occurs in both couples: dads unite and boycott moms, female sisters also resort to retaliatory sanctions. Between two fires there are children who are afraid that it will come to divorce. They try to fix the situation, but things only get worse. Then they call for help grandfather, who will tell the men how to win the hearts of their beloved again.
Family Comedy is the directorial debut of Maxim Malinin. The essence of the film is not in the quarrels and stubbornness of adults, but in the emotions of children who find themselves in the center of the conflict.
Shadow Knight 6+
Directed by: Yan Jia
Cast: Jackie Chan, Elaine Zhong, Ethan Ruan, Lin Peng, Austin Lin, Qiao Shan, Charles Luu, Lance Luu, Mark Luu, Pan Changjiang
Four years late, but the Chinese “Knight of Shadows” has finally reached the domestic film distribution. Jackie Chan played the main role in the family blockbuster. At the same time, the middle-aged actor performed most of the tricks on his own. By the way, this week he gave an interview to Izvestia.
The protagonist is the legendary demon and sorcerer hunter Pu Songling. In his free time, he enjoys writing books. One day he finds himself in a village where young girls disappear. Behind the disappearances is a powerful sorceress with her sister – they feed on the souls of the abducted, promising them eternal beauty. And although the new threat frightens the hunter, Pu Songling intends to stop the villains.