What Men Talk About

Four middle aged friends drive from Moscow to Odessa, trying to reach a concert. They talk along the way: about women, marriage, infidelity, youth, money and getting older. The narrative barely leaves those conversations. Dmitriy Dyachenko directs. The source is a play by the theatre company Kvartet I; the actors come from the same company and the characters carry their own names. It was an unexpected commercial success in Russia and sequels followed; this kind of conversation comedy started a wave in Russian cinema. Where it works is recognition. The talk is built not like written lines but like real conversation between friends, and the audience recognises its own. Short unrealistic scenes are cut in: imagined situations, enactments and direct address to camera, all of which come from the theatrical source. The limit is the point of view. The women do not speak in the film; they exist only as much as the men describe them, which was criticised in Russia as well. Who it is for: viewers who like Russian popular comedy and films built on talk along a road. Who it is not for: nothing happens, the humour is tied to its culture, and the absence of women leaves the narrative one sided.