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ZEROGRAD (1988)
aka ZERO CITY
Label: Deaf Crocodile
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 101 Minutes 40 Seconds
Audio: Russian DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Karen Shakhnazarov
Cast: Aleksandr Bespalyy, Aleksey Zharkov, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Arnold Ides, Elena Arzhanik, Evgeniy Evstigneev, Lena Zhanik,mLeonid Filatov, Oleg Basilashvili, Olga Konovalova, Pyotr Shcherbakov, Tatyana Khvostikova, Vladimir Menshov, Yevgeni Zernov, Yuriy Sherstnyov
ZEROGRAD (ZERO CITY). Part Kafka, part Agatha Christie and part Monty Python, director Karen Shakhnazarov's surreal satire of Communism follows an Everyman engineer named Varakin (Leonid Filatov) who arrives in a remote city where nothing quite makes sense, but everyone acts as if it does. He's quickly drawn into the investigation of the suicide (or possibly murder?) of a local restaurant chef, Nikolaev - who may (or may not) be Varakin's missing father. The more complex and absurdist the mystery becomes, the more poignant and plaintive Varakin's predicament - "I have to get back to Moscow," he pleads to no avail. Along the way we're treated to a bizarre and wonderful sideshow of non sequiturs out of a Wes Anderson film, including an underground museum filled with a thousand years of real and imagined Russian history ("Here's the pistol with which Urusov shot the False Dimitry II.") Frozen in time, frozen far beneath the surface, the waxwork figures are strangely beautiful and forlorn, like Shakhnazarov's marvelous and enigmatic satire of Soviet bureaucracy. With music by the great Eduard Artemyev (SOLARIS, STALKER). A Deaf Crocodile release in association with Seagull Films. In Russian with English subtitles.
Audio/Video: REVIEW COMING SOON!
Special Features:
- New 2K restoration from the original 35mm picture and sound elements by Mosfilm
- New video interview with director/co-writer Karen Shakhnazarov, moderated by Dennis Bartok of Deaf Crocodile Films (57:04)
- New commentary track by film journalist Samm Deighan (Diabolique magazine, Daughters of Darkness podcast)
- New booklet essay by filmmaker, writer, punk musician and genre expert Chris D (The Flesh Eaters; author of Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film)
- New English subtitles
Sales Points
- Globally definitive version, painstakingly remastered by Deaf Crocodile Films
- Karen Shakhnazarov (Assassin of the Tsar) is the most important director of the late Soviet Era
- For fans of Kafka, Monty Python, Agatha Christie and Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL
Screenshots from the Deaf Crocodile Blu-ray:
Extras:
Buy it!
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