Director Yuri Bykov
THE FOOL (Durak) A-
Russia (116 mi) 2014 d: Yuri Bykov
Russia (116 mi) 2014 d: Yuri Bykov
The views that brought
Chernyshevsky (Chernyshevsky and the Crystal Palace, Rational egoism: the
theory that man will always act according to his best interests) to this vision
were close to utilitarianism, meaning that actions should be judged in terms of
their expediency. Naturally,
utilitarians assumed that we can know the standard against which expediency can
be measured: usually it was economic well-being. In Chernyshevsky’s rational egotism,
utlitarianism as a method coincided with socialism as a goal: in essence, it is
in everyones individual self-interest that the whole of society flourish.
—Notes from
Underground, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,1864, page X introduction by Robert Bird
My film represents
most of Russian life. Not the past, but
the models of human relations that have existed for hundreds of years in
Russia.
—Yuri Bykov
The director reiterates similar themes that he began in The
Major (Mayor) (2013), a film that
premiered at Critics Week in the Cannes Festival of 2012, exposing the rampant
corruption that plagues Russian society, where remnants of the Stalinist
bureaucracy are now seen at every level of government. This is a searing exposé of Russia as a model
of inefficiency that matches much of the indignant anger expressed in
Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground,
an ornery, bitter, and rambling piece of wicked satire that excoriates the prevailing
philosophical wisdom of the era. Bykov’s
works come across as revolutionary acts, where one is surprised that under
Putin he’s not locked up in the Siberian gulags, as after all Putin arrests
female rock stars, Pussy
Riot: A Punk Prayer (Pokazatelnyy protsess: Istoriya Pussy Riot) (2013)
with the same relish as oil oligarchs, Vlast
(Power) (2010), as Bykov is a lone voice of unfiltered realism set against
a backdrop of an ancient tribal system that historically relies upon bribes and
favors for services, the mathematical equivalent of no bribes, no services,
where you have to pay to play, leaving the poor out of the picture where they
are left to fend for themselves. In this
film it pits one honest man against an entire system of on-the-take bureaucrats,
where everyone in a position of importance gets a piece of the action, feeling
very much like a HIGH NOON (1952) western format, where a lone cowboy, usually
with a wife or child to protect, has to take on a gang of outlaws that have
been stealing the town blind. Against
all odds, these often feel like suicide missions. Yet the world needs honest men. In fact, they depend on them. While voicing his feverish anxiety from a
position he calls “a mousehole,” Dostoyevsky in his introduction explains that
both the character and his “notes” are fictional, but that he represents a
certain Russian type the public needs to know about. For all practical purposes, Bykov is that
public voice today. In a devastatingly
bleak opening that offers a doomed comment on the plight of the working poor,
the film begins with a long choreographed take of an abusive alcoholic’s rage
against his wife and daughter that escalates into physical violence, both
brutally battered when he realizes they’ve run out of money. By the time the police arrive, she decides
not to press charges because if her husband misses work the next day he won’t
receive a monthly bonus.
While this problem is escalating, other residents in this
dilapidated tenement building, a relic of public housing from an earlier era
that’s been standing for nearly 40 years, as old as the town itself, complain
of bursting water pipes, a commonplace occurrence that happens so frequently
that repair units offer only minor fixes that might last a day or two before
they’re back on the job again in a neverending cycle of futility. On this occasion, the municipal repair chief
for the neighborhood is unavailable, gone on a three-day drinking binge, so his
alternate is called, another plumber, Dima Nikitin (Artyom Bystrov), who is
studying to pass an exam that would help put him in a position to replace his
boss, Federotov (Boris Nevzorov), the chief housing inspector. But before he receives the call, a portrait
of his family paints another harsh reality, where Dima and his father
(Alexander Korshunov) are treated to a blistering tirade from his domineering
mother, (Olga Samoshina), calling her husband a fool for not taking what’s
offered to him, like everybody else on the take, instead pretending to be all
high and mighty while shunned by the rest of the workers, forced to exist on
next to nothing, where he continually makes repairs around the building out of his
own pocket rather than bilking the city coffers, which seems like the sensible
thing to do. But the coffers have run
dry with rumors flying that greedy city officials pocket more than their own
personal share, with nothing trickling down to the actual residents in need of
repairs. While the lacerating speech is
aimed at the father, it’s the son who emerges as the fool, an honest, would-be
working-class hero, a man who dares to try to fight against an entrenched
bureaucracy of insatiable self-interests and the hapless communal indifference
of the town’s residents. Not only is that a daunting task, but he
actually cares what happens to people in these dilapidated housing projects
that others would describe as lost causes, as they don’t give a damn about
their own lives. By the time he has a
look at the building, however, a minor repair escalates to a problem of
disastrous proportions, as behind the water leaks, the exterior wall of the
building has cracked from the foundation all the way up to the 9th floor roof,
where he suspects the building may split in half. Realizing the enormity of the potential
problem, he turns off the water in the building and vows to speak to city
officials the next day.
Though the building is not part of his official jurisdiction,
Dima’s nagging suspicions get the better of him during the night, calculating
that the building has already started to shift and may fall within
24-hours. With over 800 residents in the
building, this is a public disaster he knows he needs to try to prevent. Bypassing the layers of bureaucracy that
contributed to the many years of neglect, he calls the Mayor, Nina Galaganova (Nataliya
Surkova), but she’s at a restaurant with all the other city officials
celebrating her 50th birthday party. This
sets up the ultimate confrontation of an ordinary average Joe interrupting a
drunken extravaganza of a party all honoring “Mama,” including speeches
commemorating her bravery in standing up to incompetent officials, building a
healthy environment for economic growth, and completely turning the city around
during her administration. In this
atmosphere of drunken euphoria, Dima announces the Mayor must act immediately
to stave off a human catastrophe. Like a
general ordering her troops into battle formation, all the heads of state
gather in an adjoining conference room, hauling in some from their drunken
stupors, including an angry Federotov who wants this young plumber’s head for
bypassing his authority. Ordering an
immediate inspection to reject or confirm his allegations, Federotov and young
Dima head off to the site in question.
What immediately strikes the viewer is the visual disparity between the
poor unemployed dregs of society in the tenement building whose drunken
belligerence is symptomatic of their fatalistic apathy, along with young kids
in the hallway getting high on drugs in plain view of their parents and the
city officials, showing absolute disdain for any authority, and the
well-dressed officials at the party stumbling on the dance floor, many passed
out on the tables, the rank and file bureaucrats drinking the finest liquor and
French wine, with Nina wearing a fiery red dress with gaudy jewelry that is
meant to impress, a woman who has accumulated riches at the expense of the
lower class that she ironically rose out of that she now totally disdains. What’s perhaps not surprising is the link
between this decadent display of wealth and affluence and the Communist-era of
doing business, a system entirely based upon monetary favors. When Federotov returns confirming the kid’s
suspicions, all out war develops in the verbal sparring back and forth at the
table, each one accusing the other of pocketing money for personal gain, where
it’s like sharks in the water during a feeding frenzy, all taking place while
the party is in full swing, with the nonstop thumping of the bass heard from
the adjacent room serving as a constant reminder of an endless carousal of
drunken revelry. It’s a surreal moment
on a devastating magnitude confirming one’s worst suspicions, becoming a
refresher course on how to shake down an entire population through
unprecedented shortsightedness and greed, where one hears the phrase: “A fish rots from the head down.” The resolution is a remarkable piece of
political theater, where the Stalinist policies of the past have never really
gone away, but are resurrected for moments such as these where people are
viewed as replaceable parts in a bigger picture that exists only for a significant
few.
