People don't mind fire. Review of ”Avanpost”
Of the novelties of the past week, it is difficult to bypass Avanpost, a domestic cyber-sci-fi thriller about what may await us in the near future. The nearly three-hour film from the creators of "Gogol" with a stellar cast and a large budget made a big splash even before the official premiere, but turned out to be too heavy to successfully make it to the second week of distribution. Nevertheless, it is unfair to consider the film a failure: despite the seriousness and pathos, which is much less here than, for example, in Fyodor Bondarchuk's "Attraction", "Outpost" is cut quite well and even too thoughtfully.The action takes place approximately in Moscow in the 2030s: courier drones are already flying around the city, but the war in Syria ended not so long ago. It seems that it is always night in the capital, as in Ridley Scott's gloomy Los Angeles in Blade Runner. Muscovites would have continued their carefree nightlife if the state of emergency had not been declared. The federal channel reported that communications with the rest of the world were interrupted, electricity was cut off everywhere and millions of people were missing. Only Moscow, Finland and some post-Soviet countries remained in the so-called Circle of Life. The entire area beyond the Circle became a quarantine zone in which strange events began to occur. To understand what is happening is necessary for the military, gathered at one of the outposts in the Kirov region. There is a contractor Oleg (Alexey Chadov), whose brother died in Syria, the controversial and aggressive Yura (Peter Fedorov), who will soon receive the nickname The Killing Machine, the doctor Alena (Lukerya Ilyashenko) and the fragile war correspondent Olya (Svetlana Ivanova) - a girl advocating for justice with a victim complex.  Neither the major nor his soldiers have any idea who they are fighting against. As a result of the bloody reconnaissance operation in Kirov, it became clear that crowds of thousands of armed people were approaching them, ready to fight tirelessly. The fact that some alien forces are involved here will become clear later, when the threat is imminent. With excessive straightforwardness, the film broadcasts the idea that violence has perverted humanity, which over thousands of years of existence has learned only to destroy. Pointless wars are waged, aggression is spreading like a virus, television only tells fake news. The future of USA, which Avanpost depicts, is dystopian even before the catastrophe and the formation of the Circle of Life. Therefore, what happens next seems to be the only logical course of events. Only the number of victims that will be dotted the streets of Kirov is striking. Military units quickly and without a grain of regret deal with the attacking crowds. War is their job and duty, why figure out who the enemy is and what does he want?  The Outpost, which is two-thirds of its rather energetic gunfight scenes accompanied by the equally peppy music of Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, wants to sound like a pacifist film reflecting on World War III. The surviving heroes, who have realized their responsibility for the future of humanity, will still have to drop their weapons at the right time. But whether it will happen too late is an open question, like the film's finale. Such a pacifist message would not have looked out of place if the film had not been sponsored by the Ministry of Defense, which, according to director Yegor Baranov, reached out to the creators of the film and offered them cooperation. Provided tanks and armored personnel carriers, advised on how the army should act in an emergency, and all so that it would work on a positive image of the army. In fact,  While all the others were indignant and offered to film their "Chernobyl", Baranov made USA science fiction in the spirit of "Black Mirror". The British TV series has already discussed genocide and the propaganda of violence in the episode Nobody Wanted to Kill, which resonates thematically with Outpost. The hero Fedorov, in whom war awakens the most base thoughts and desires, is the main proponent of war and violence. However, for some reason he does not look like a villain. And other heroes are not particularly inclined to show regret or love. Therefore, the idea of peacefulness and prevention of universal hatred, alas, is not read, no matter how the creators tried to make it central. And how can she be considered if even the most sensitive and understanding character is not alien to the thirst for revenge, even if he can take up arms? The Topic of Article: People don't mind fire. Review of ”Avanpost”. |
