Product Details

• Actors: Shavkat Abdusalamov, Anatoli Adoskin, Alexei Khvostenko, Andrei Kudriashov, Yuri Laguta
• Directors: Ilya Khrjanovsky
• Format: PAL, Full Screen, Subtitled, Import
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: VOX - Video
• Run Time: 126.0 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000FEWEBE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,174 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

ENGLISH SUBTITLES!!! Russian, PAL, Region free DVD. Available audio track: DD 5.1 RUSSIAN. NOTE: PAL is European video standard which WILL NOT play on regular R1 DVD player (multisystem PAL/NTSC compatible, region-free DVD player required). Please, get familiar with all details about DVD video standards to avoid any misunderstandings ____________________ SYNOPSIS: Two men and a woman happen to meet in a bar. We learn from their conversations both the intriguing and banal details of their lives. But is anyone really telling the truth? From the meat market, to the president's drinking habit or the soviet cloning project, this allegory opposes different aspects of contemporary Russian society.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fear for the future, September 10, 2006

By 

W R Visser (Leusden Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 4 / Chetyre / Four - (Russian Import - PAL DVD) (DVD)

'Chetyre' (= Russian for 'four') touches on a fear we all feel deep down inside: the genetic reproduction of humans will get out of control. It's a fear very comparable to another we have been familiar with for a long time: that of nuclear energy.

'Chetyre's story starts with a coincidential meeting at a bar of a wealthy meat-trader, a prostitute and a professional piano-tuner. Influenced by alcoholics, their tales get pretty out of hand: the meat-trader works at the office of president Putin, the prostitute in advertising, and the piano-tuner in the genetic reproduction of humans. It's clear they don't believe each other, but for the sake of their togetherness in a lonely night they don't play it up. The barkeeper, half asleep, misses out on it all anyway.

Afterwards each goes his/her own way. We see the meat-trader back at work, discovering a piglet-breed he didn't know of. The prostitute attends a friend's funeral in the country, and gets involved in the doll-production handcraft her late friend earned her living with. The piano-tuner ends up in prison for a crime he did or didn't commit.

In the end the meat-trader gets killed in a car accident, his expensive watch stolen. The piano-tuner is converted to a punishment-company in the Russian army, flying off to some war-theatre. It all emphasizes this movie's pessimistic bottomline: our inability to control our own destiny, let alone that of mankind.

Abundant with typical Eastern European subtlety, 'Chetyre's styling is very Russian indeed: slow-paced, with lots of dialogue. Taking plenty of time to make its point. All embedded in a beautiful, slightly surrealistic picturing.

Although I don't think this movie will appeal widely in our Western world, its quality is beyond dispute. By my knowledge this is the first movie seriously dealing with genetic reproduction. I felt relieved by the way producer Ilya Chrzjanovski took on this awkward theme.