Review of Cargo 200 (2007) by Tomek S — 19 May 2009

I haven't seen a whole lot of Russian movies in the last few years, and if this one is the best one to make the cut, I'm not sure what that says about Russian cinema as a whole.

This movie was quite disjointed, and not particularly shot very well. There seemed to be at least two different story lines that didn't seem to blend into a cohesive story. As a result I was somewhat confused when they went from story to story. I think they would've been better off not focusing at all on the story of the smuggling kid and the guy with the broken down car. I didn't understand why I was supposed to care about them at all. The other story was the part I will remember and was one of the more disturbing things I've seen in a long, long time.

Apparently, this was all "based on a true story" in Russia in 1984. A young girl goes to a club and hooks up with her friends fiancee. Later, he goes to get more alcohol, and she gets abducted by first one group of people, and later by another really creepy guy. The really creepy guy turns out to be the head of the police in a nearby town. He keeps her handcuffed to a bed and calls her his "wife". There's some really disturbing scenes, and a few scenes of surprisingly gratuitous violence that don't seem to add much to the story.

In the end, you don't really know much about the characters other than what their actions were in this particular story. There's no background. No reasons given. Just that the people are all nuts. Plus, all the scenery is bleak and drab to look at. There's really not much to recommend except that it's a movie that will probably stick with you for a while for 2 reasons: 1) it's Russian, and you just don't see many Russian movies, and 2) there's some pretty messed up stuff that goes on while the girl is handcuffed to the bed.

I can't say I'd recommend it though....