Rate: 5 of 5 - Masterpiece Related links: Avatar film Betafilm |
Brigada - Law of the lawlessAfter two years of duty in the Russian Army in Afghanistan, Sasha Belov is happy to get back home to Moscow. The year is 1989 and Sasha is looking forward to see Moscow, his girlfriend, mother and his friends again and to get himself a dog. His mother and his friends are all glad having him back in Moscow, but the girlfriend has already found someone else. Fights using knuckle-dusters and boxing in illegal fight clubs are the everyday life for Sasha Belov and his friends during this year. Also Sasha finally gets himself a dog, but that happiness doesn't last for long as he is suddenly charged with a murder he hasn't committed.We may then follow the Brigade (Sasha and his gang) for a period of more than ten years, from the end of the 80´s till the beginning of the new millennium. A period during the organised crime developed a whole lot in the real Russia. And that is what we are going to see too in this film. The Brigades knuckle-dusters are changed to automatic-riffles and the Brigade is being involved in more and more sophisticated crimes, like trade of weapons, narcotics and steel. Being a member of the brigade there is no need thinking of money, giving away a flat as a wedding gift or spending a fortune in the casinos is not a problem. But the life has a darker side too, as for example when one of Sashas best friends are being murdered, or when radio news are telling about Russian soldiers being killed in the war, killed by Russian weapons, sold to the enemy by the brigade. Also shootings, murders and grenade-attacks are not that uncommon. And it's never possible to know who can be trusted. And even if the members of the brigade is standing real close to each other, as they spent the time together since the first form of preliminary school, there is times when they can't even trust each other. Brigada is one of the most popular Russian TV-series ever made. The company behind the serials has time after time been forced to deny rumours about a second season. The fact is that the TV-serial is that good that it could well had been made for the screen if it wasn't for runtime of 13 hours. The Berlin Film Festival even made an exception from not showing tv productions when showing two of the episodes of this TV-series. Like many other Russian crime movies Brigada offers a really good soundtrack, but in difference to other Russian crime movies, the sound-track is not filled with the latest Russian rock music, but with nice and placid music. This is by all means the best Russian tv-serial ever and by all means better than the best American productions too. Original title: Brigada English language title: Law of the Lawless Language: Russian Runtime: 780 minutes (13 hours) Production year: 2002 Directed by: Alexei Sidorov Actors: Sergei Bezrukov, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Yekaterina Guseva, Dimitri Dyuzhev, Pavel Majkov, Andrei Panin, Nikolai Yeremenko and more. |
