FirstLoveMovies

KinoKultura wrote:To anyone who has seen Aleksei Balabanov’s films, The River (2002) might seem uncharacteristic, yet it shares with his other films an interest in staging encounters with the Other in scenarios that carry a fable-like quality. It received limited theatrical release and was distributed primarily as an art film. The film is set in the Arctic region of Yakutia and uses Russian voice-over narration and Yakut language dialogue. Based on a Polish novel by Vatsslav Serashevskii, this 50-minute film tells a story of jealous love and betrayal that end up decimating a small group of outcaste lepers who have been banished from participation in Yakut community life. They are two young men, Kirgelei and Dzhanga, an old couple, a little girl, Byterkhai, and Kirgelei’s pregnant lover, Mergen, who has no leprosy but is also an outcaste because she is a thief. The narrative is set in motion by the unexpected arrival Anchik, the healthy wife of Kirgelei, whose presence precipitates Mergen’s jealous hostility, which culminates in her setting fire to the hut of Kirgelei and Anchik. But perhaps the best-known detail about this film concerns the circumstances of its production, and the death of its star, Tujaara Svinoboeva, in a road accident well before the film was completed, resulting in a film that looks nothing like the original screenplay.