To Live

In the Russian countryside a man walking in the woods witnesses something: an execution at the roadside. One of the victims is alive. He decides to carry the wounded man out on his back. The killers come after them. What follows is not an escape but a carrying; the man is heavy and the distance is long. Yury Bykov writes and directs in his first film. He composed the music and appears in it as well. It was made on a very low budget with a small crew on real locations, and runs a little over seventy minutes. The subject is a moral decision. Leaving the wounded man is possible and sensible at every moment; that option stays open throughout and the character does not take it. The narrative does not call it heroism. Bykov worked the same question in his later films: an ordinary person meeting an impossible obligation, with the system leaving him no road. The image is cold and flat; the forest is not made beautiful and the violence is sudden, short and unadorned. It became one of the noticed examples of Russian independent cinema and made Bykov's name. Who it is for: viewers who like hard Russian drama and films built on moral dilemma. Who it is not for: it is hopeless, the violence is heavy, and the narrative gives no relief at any point.