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4
year 2004 length 126', colour 35mm country Russia
directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky
First Feature Film
Cast Marina Vovchenko (Marina), Irina Vovchenko (Sonia), Svetlana Vovchenko (Vera) , Sergey Shnurov (Volodia), Yuri Laguta (Olog), Kostantin Murzenko (Marat), Aleksey Khvostenko (Old man), Anatoliy Adoskin (Misha)
Screenplay Vladimir Sorokin
Cinematography Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev, Aleksandre Ilkhovsky, Shander Berkechi
Editing Igor Malakhov
Art direction Shavkat Abdusalamov
Sound Kirill Vasilenko
Producer Elena Yatsura
Production Filmocom Company in collaboration with Russian Federation Ministry of Culture, Hubert Bals Fund
Diritti Internazionali
Filmocom Production
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synopsis
Three Muscovites meet in a bar in the middle of the night and enthusiastically lie to each other about their lives. Then they go their separate ways. Each lives through his or her own story (a story with its own setting milieu: of a village, of a city and of a jail).
Each story occurs in an abrupt manner. And each story is utterly complicated. In every case there is a strange, phantasmagorical reference to clones (the theme of the most explicit lie in the bar) that supposedly live around the country.
4 evolved from a short to feature film, and it endured its own experimentation (unprofessional actors, including old women from a village with their ethnic food and dialect; plus the combination of disparate images). Its goal is to remind us of the little people lost in the vast space of a country, and of the price paid for life’s everyday compromises and inattentiveness.
The scriptwriter of 4, young Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin, says about his novels: "from a philistine point of view, it is rough stuff". He was accused of pornography because of a grotesque scene of the sex act involving Stalin and Khrushchev. There is also a lot of "rough stuff" in the public debate concerning his books. A gloomy and grotesque happening took place in front of the Bolshoi Theatre two years ago. At the instigation of the chauvinist organization "Together We March", the crowd of pensioners tore the Sorokin’s books and threw them into a large toilet! Such a scene could have well slipped into the film 4.
It is a ruthless and hideous vision of the world, entirely devoid of the warmth typical of old Soviet films, e.g. in the scenes of common banquets with vodka and singing. Another thing missing here - is the Russian martyrdom and the contemplation of the tragic fate of the nation. There is nothing left of the humanism of old. From this point of view, 4 seems quite close to the well-known "Astenic Syndrom" by Kira Muratova of the nineties.
The world has lost its usual form. A funeral reception and up in an orgy. People believe in the devil rather than in God. The Soviet forced-labour camps are still there, and one can easily get to them. Recruits similar to living dolls as always go to war for Russia. The Stalinist past coexists with the ferocious capitalism. The Director Khrzanovsky depicts the upset reality, wherein nothing is sure, not even the fact that we are human beings and not artificially manufactured clones.
Tadeusz Sobolewski
director's statement
4 is about how reality carves out a human's individuality, turning a unique person into a piece of living meat. It's about how hard it is to be our true selves.
There are a few heroes in the movie - all of them are young, between 25 and 30. That's my generation: we were around to see the fall of the Empire, but our more conscious life began with the New times of great changes and evaporating values.
Ilya Khrzahanovsky
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