“Country of OZ” (2015) is a breathtakingly interesting film, not only because the creator of “tough festival works” Vasily Sigarev made a truly folk comedy, but because the picture created in the New Year comedy genre turned out to be completely infernal.
Dark tale
The work of a film playwright and director, a vivid representative of the "new drama" in the domestic cinema Vasily Sigarev, leading filmmakers characterize in one word - "hopelessness." The director became famous for the dramatic play “Plasticine”, which tells about the interconnected deaths of adolescents and the somewhat more joyful films “Live” and “The Top”. Therefore, the appearance of his new work - the merciless Russian New Year comedy "Country of OZ" (2015) - slightly surprised fans of the work of the director and experts of the domestic film industry. If you look closely at the name of Sigarev’s project, it’s easy to note the author’s satire enclosed in it - the country of zero-three is hidden behind the well-known fabulous country of Oz. For a well-known number, it is high time to call an emergency ambulance for all its residents. However, the reviews of the film “Country of OZ” are also associated with the tale of a girl who, accompanied by a cute dog, went to the Emerald City to seek help from a wizard.
Plot. Tie
Sigarev’s comedy “Country of OZ” plot has a secondary, but intriguing. The main character, a resident of the village of Malye Lyali Lenka Shabadinova (actress Yana Troyanova), on New Year's Eve, from hopelessness, gets a job in Ekaterinburg, which she is unfamiliar with. At all costs, she needs to find Torforezov Street, on which the new place of work is located - a stall, for which she is promised to pay 15 thousand rubles a month for work. The driver of the first ride (Yevgeny Tsyganov), into which the woman managed to get into, is intoxicated, so she takes the unfortunate woman in the opposite lane to unimaginable distances that have nothing to do with the desired destination. At this moment, since the “Country of OZ” genre is comedic, a lot of incidents and adventures in the spirit of “laughter through tears” happen to the heroine. For some reason, most of the good domestic comedies are always obtained by tragicomedy. Perhaps because A.P. Chekhov set this shade, positioning it as the comedy Cherry Orchard.
Character Gallery
Further in the comedy “Country of OZ” the plot presents a set of related short stories. Having survived with great difficulty (the actress received a concussion on the set of this episode) and reaching Yekaterinburg, Elena meets a bard and poet, a hopeless romantic (Vladimir Simonov), who prefers the virtual world of the surrounding reality. Having barely taken away her legs from a follower of tantric sex, the main character, by the will of fate, ends up in an apartment of an elderly cosmetics trader (Inna Churikova), who lives with her three monstrous sons - “couch warriors”.
Meanwhile, potential employers, the characters of Andrei Ilyenkov (the writer and screenwriter of the picture) and Alexander Bashirov, on the street of Torforezov in a trade stall, were tired of waiting for a new saleswoman. They have already begun to actively celebrate the upcoming holiday, therefore, judging by their drunken dialogues, Lena is no longer in a hurry to work.
Further, to continue a brief description of the storyline without spoiler is not possible. Some reviews of the film “Country of OZ” were dubbed the new “Russian Line”, a popular movie, but not a fake one. As the creators of the picture convincingly demonstrated to a wide audience, laughter, fairy tales, miracles, realism and truthfulness do not interfere at all.
Muse of Sigarev - Yana Troyanova
"Country of OZ", according to leading domestic film experts, is extremely similar to Gogol's phantasmagoria, whose narrative is twisted around the main character. The main role in Sigarev’s film is played by his muse and wife Yana Troyanova - one of the best contemporary characteristic Russian actresses. The huge city of Yekaterinburg, native to Sigarev and Troyanova, palms her naive heroine one obstacle after another, allowing the actress to demonstrate the full range of her skills.
According to Troyanova, she basically does not act in the mainstream and commercial projects, as she is not looking for earnings in her profession. The performer’s professional level and unique acting talent was highly appreciated by film critics more than once, she was several times awarded the Kinotavr prize for the best female role in the film “The Top” and “Kokoko”, the Russian Film Festival in Honfleur and was nominated for “Nika” for best actress in the project "Live". In 2016, the Russian comedy television movie about the difficult fate of “a simple Russian woman” called “Olga” was aired, in which the main role is played by Yana Troyanova.
"Country OZ" revealed to the world its comedic acting potential, which immediately took advantage of the creators of the series Alexey Nuzhny and Igor Voloshin.
Parade of domestic movie stars
It is no coincidence that the film “Country of OZ” is called one of the most stellar projects of our time, indeed, the tape is literally stuffed with outstanding and popular artists who are happy to fit into unusual, and sometimes indecent, roles. During the viewing, the domestic viewer may find out with difficulty:
- Gosha Kutsenko, whose character, Roman, makes an extremely pleasant impression on the general background of the ongoing insanity in the film "Country of OZ." Gosha Kutsenko played a hero who, although somewhat crazy, but still gives the main character and the audience a fair amount of optimism.
- Daria Ekamasova and Alisa Khazanova in the image of prostitute heroines, codenamed Snegurochka No. 1 and No. 2.
- Evgenia Tsyganova as a crazy driver under a butyrate.
- Vladimir Simonov, reincarnated as bard Alexei Poberdin.
Movie star of two centuries
In the "Land of OZ" the viewer can even see Inna Churikova herself, who played the role of the unfortunate mother of Divan Warriors. By the way, the novella with her participation may seem too fabulous, although the tale is clearly not for children. According to rumors, the performer starred in the project secretly from her husband Gleb Panfilov. The great actress Inna Churikova, “Country of OZ” for whom she became the 41st tape in the filmography, continues to appear: in 2016, two films will be released with her participation - “The Best Day” and “Forever and Everlasting”.
All these and many other brilliant domestic performers, embodying the director’s idea, created a New Year’s comedy of a new level, which is not a parody, it is rather very Russian, unrepresentable in any other culture or state, an unceasing merciless festive fest.
Destructive Christmas comedy
The “Country of OZ” during the premiere screen shocked the audience not only with an excess of swear words and expressions, even though the director managed to put a couple of obscene phrases even in the mouth of the venerable Inna Churikova. Rather, the audience was confused by the fact that Sigarev mercilessly and insolently deconstructed the holy, encroaching on the New Year, which is considered the brightest and most promising holiday. Many inhabitants, focusing on childhood impressions, still perceive it this way. But according to reviews, the film "Country of OZ" from novel to novel becomes more and more poisonous: if the presence of a drug addict, pervert bard, prostitutes and degenerates in the narrative can still be avoided by the authors, then the abundance of New Year jokes in the style of sorted humor didn’t make many I jerk more than once.
Homerically funny
As a result, Sigarev turned out a homerically funny and completely uncompromising movie. Domestic censors missed this movie, doomed in advance to success and pulling it away for quotes, with a creak. In the author’s version, the characters speak such an obscene folk language, and in the censored version, all the obscene language was replaced by “peaks”.