Izgnanie

The Banishment Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov, June 16, 2019



Vera

A cold and rainy night. A desolated town. A car pulls over, two men shake hands and enter what from the outside looks like an industrial building. They have a few quick exchanges and then the driver, who has been shot and is bleeding, asks his host to get a knife and try to remove a bullet that is stuck in his arm. His face reveals that he is exhausted and can barely stand on his feet.This short but very atmospheric sequence creates the impression that Andrey Zvyagintsev's second feature film,, would be some sort of a tense neo-noir thriller. But then the film abruptly heads in a completely new direction.Now the man from the building, Alex (Konstantin Lavronenko), his wife, Vera (Maria Bonnevie), and their two children (Maksim Shibayev and Yekaterina Kulkina) are somewhere in the countryside. They reach a house on a hill that might have been closed for years. From afar the area looks like something that the mind of a masterful painter would envision. The children are excited to be here and are ready to start playing, but their parents act like total strangers. Alex quietly removes the wooden covers from the windows and visits each room, while Vera heads to the kitchen to see if there is water so that she can begin preparing their dinner.Eventually, after the children run away and in a moment of awkward silence Vera calmly announces that she is pregnant again -- but Alex isn't the father.If Zvyagintsev's film had emerged a few years before Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker today a large number of critics almost certainly would have referred to it as one of Soviet cinema's greatest masterpieces. Indeed, it remains firmly grounded in reality and tells a very different story, but the manner in which Zvyagintsev interweaves breathtaking visuals and atmospheric music to lure the viewer in its reality is unquestionably realized with the same visionary brilliance that defines Tarkovsky's work. Perhaps the only meaningful difference between the two directors comes from Zvyagintsev's freedom to convey a much wider range of human emotions, which in return allows him to expose far more dramatic social contrasts that would have never sneaked past the red censors.The simplicity of the story is incredibly deceiving, but for two different reasons. The first should not surprise anyone that has seen Zvyagintsev's directorial debut, The Return , in which the growing tension between an abusive father and his two teenage sons is similarly used to highlight the internal corrosion of a country that has been unable to regain its classic identity after decades of Communist rule. (This is actually a constant theme in all of Zvyagintsev's films). The second could be rather surprising because here Zvyagintsev actually further restricts the use of dialog but succeeds in 'telling' a much more nuanced story with even greater dramatic twists.After the film premiered at Cannes Lavronenko took home the Best Actor Award, and rightfully so, but the entire cast is equally impressive. Aleksandr Baluev's performance, in particular, is so good that it actually leaves a lasting impression that he might be a real shady character who, perhaps as a personal favor to Zvyagintsev, has temporarily stepped out of the shadows.The deeply atmospheric music and clever sound design are as crucial for the film's heavy ambience as are the stunning locations. Andrey Dergachev is truly a master of his art and it is probably only a matter of time before the right project earns him an Academy Award.