4. Director Ilya Khrjanovksy.

4
http://www.rusfilm.pitt.edu/2005/pn/4.htm

One of the best film openings ever? Then, the whole meeting of the 3 characters and the barman in the early hours. A combination of Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter. (And they said it couldn't be done!)
From here on in there is not ever the slightest pretence of pulling the different themes together - or even making sense of some of the strands. Does it matter? Not a bit.
It's the village of women that gets to me. Some of them remind me of my Granny. (Though she was more or less teetotal. This lot are on on vodka from breakfast to supper. ) The disturbing thing is that it all feels sooo authentic. (There are rumours of whole villages drunk outside the cities but is place is so extreme in their whole economy.) And it doesn't feel like fantasy. The lone man is so pathetic - trying to pursuade parents at the railway station if he can borrow their child with his bag-full of small coins as his hire-price.
Can't wait for 5.