Why Don't You Just Die!

A young man knocks on an apartment door holding a hammer; he has come to kill his girlfriend's father. The father is a corrupt policeman. The door opens and within an hour the flat is a battlefield. Who wants to kill whom, and why, opens up in flashback. Kirill Sokolov wrote and directed his first film. It takes place almost entirely in one apartment. The colour is deliberately excessive: walls, carpet and blood belong to the same palette. The influences are obvious and the film does not hide them; Tarantino and Guy Ritchie editing is joined to Russian domestic violence. The violence is exaggerated and staged to be funny; the blows are cartoon-scale rather than realistic. The matter underneath is heavier: the history between a father and his daughter, and the state entering the home through one of its officers. It travelled festivals outside Russia and found a cult audience. Who it is for: viewers who like bloody black comedy and single-location films. Who it is not for: anyone with no tolerance for graphic violence; the film never lets up.