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LETO
Director: Kirill Serebrennikov Cast: Teo Yoo, Irina Starshenbaum, Roman Bilyk, Aleksandr Gorchilin, Filipp Avdeev, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Vasiliy Mikhaylov, Yuliya Aug, Nikita Efremov, Georgiy Kudrenko, Nikita Elenev, Liya Akhedzhakova MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 2:06 Release Date: 6/7/19 (limited); 6/21/19 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 20, 2019 To watch Leto is to be struck by the details, which is to say that the movie is less compelling as a narrative than it is as a recreation of the atmosphere of a certain time and place. The place is Russia, and the time is the 1980s, when Soviet Communism was still in full force. The people are exclusively participants in the rock-and-roll scene in Leningrad of this era, which was, according to this depiction, far less underground than one might have believed. There were concerts, yes, but with besuited men standing to the sides, stopping audience members from doing more than tapping their feet or politely applauding. It's quite surreal to see these performance scenes, and it's certainly absurd for the characters, especially Viktor Tsoy (Teo Yoo), an up-and-comer on the scene, who starts the band Kino and whose songs, according to the rock club's owner, aim for the gutter. Viktor's friend Mayk (Roman Bilyk), an established star in the band Zoopark, insists that the songs are satirical—not indulging in juvenile or critical words and behavior, but mocking such thinking. Viktor objects, but being a "comedy band" allows him to perform on a stage. If there is a plot, it's about the relationship between Viktor and Mayk, as well as each man's relationship with Natasha (Irina Starshenbaum), who's married to Mayk and starts falling for Viktor. Mostly, though, director Kirill Serebrennikov's movie is about both recreating the weird existence of inherently rebellious personalities under an authoritarian state and imagining the attitude hidden beneath the social and governmental restrictions. On stage, these bands and audiences are under control. Through assorted musical sequences, in which they and random people sing and perform Western rock hits of the time (with rotoscoped animation creating an air of fantasy), Serebrennikov shows us how they really felt. A fourth-wall-breaking semi-narrator informs us when the movie shifts from reality. We come away from Leto with a decent sense of the contradictory nature of the Soviet rock scene, but we're also left with the feeling of a significant void in the story's depiction of its central figures. They existed. They rebelled when and how they could. The two most figures in the tale died young. The point, mournfully conveyed through broad narrative strokes and song, is that they could have been more. The same goes for their presence in this movie. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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