mchenrykrm This plot of this movie is rather depressing and has a sad ending, but like so many Russian films the acting and cinematography are great.The film centers on the issue of corruption in the Russian system and the influence the mafia has on law enforcement. The protagonist, a deputy police chief, by accident runs over a boy while rushing to witness his own child's birth. The mother of the child signs a statement taking the blame for the boy's death to save her husband from a beating by police. The conscience of the protagonist gets the better of him and he refuses to allow blame for the boy's death to shift to the mother. This angers the corrupt officials who fear the bad publicity will threaten their hold on power. Ultimately the protagonist's desire to take responsibility for his action leads to more spilled blood and turns a bad situation into a tragedy when he has to take the life of the boy's mother to save his own wife and child.No Hollywood fluff or pizazz here, just gritty and realistic characters caught up in a drama. One of the reasons I am a big fan of Russian cinema.

Mishka Major Sergey Sobolov gets a phonecall informing him that his wife has gone into labour...in a rush driving too fast he accidentally kills a seven year old boy right in front of the child's mother...his natural reaction is to cover up the incident...and from there on chaos ensues...the real problems with the cover up occur when Sobolev's guilty conscience catches up with him...This isn't your typical police corruption story...there are no one dimensional characters and a lot of moral questions are raised throughout the film...nothing is black and white...during one part of the film the following question is asked: 'would you report your husband if he ran over a child'...and one has to ask whether the police protecting their own is any different from the rest of us...Denis Svedov as Sergey delivers a powerful performance as does Irina Nizina as Irina, the boys mother...Yuri Bykov who also directs the film is excellent as Pasha...This film could have presented a simple good vs bad guy scenario and i'm glad it didn't...everyone is all too human but find themselves doing inhumane things in a difficult situation...how far would you go to save others and yourself?...and what can you live with?...

JvH48 I saw this film at the Leiden film festival 2013 (LIFF). It is not the usual story about the incompetent police force in Russia. Neither is corruption the issue here, also a popular topic in Russian films. Nevertheless, the local police does not leave a positive impression after this, and we cannot know whether this applies only to the city at hand. Anyway, intended as social commentary or not, the people working in the police force show their human nature, precisely that being the cause of all the intricacies we witness in this movie. They mean well, but they weave a tangled web, so to speak.It starts simply with colleagues wanting to prevent a fellow police officer punished for something he is formally accountable for, namely fatally wounding a child while hastily driving to a maternity hospital after a phone call that his wife was about to give birth to a child. But, given his spotless past plus the obvious reasons for his speedy driving, those colleagues are prepared to bend the truth a little bit.It could have worked. However, higher echelons insist on a water tight cover up, that can never reach a court. That includes "coercing" the mother of the killed child to agree on a false statement. In spite of everyone's good intentions, with each step it gets more and more out-of-control. There is no easy way out of the mess, getting more problematic by the hour.All in all, in spite of the depressing view on the Russian police force we see in action, the self-inflicted complications make this into an interesting story. We witness the averse side effects of the well-intended cover-up, and the equally well-intended corrective actions making the situation worse and worse. I'd rather not deal with the police force and their superiors within city hall, such as the ones portrayed in this film. It is comforting that it is in a country far away, and we can safely watch the story explode in everyone's faces from our comfy chairs. The ability to see many other countries and different "political" rules of engagement, is a nice feature of a film festival. This film offered some good insights in that respect, and precisely that defines the positive things about this film. Most festival visitors seem to disagree, however, as this film ranked a lowly 37th place (out of 55) for the audience award.

GUENOT PHILIPPE Wonderful, amazing, superb, but maybe not for everyone...This Russian crime movie is an unexpected film indeed. An unusual scheme that reminds me a french movie made in 1975: LA TRAQUE. Not the same story,but the same atmosphere and especially the same lack of moral and ethics. A film that leaves you an ash taste in your mouth. See for yourself.In the deep Russia country side, a police officer accidentally kills a young boy whilst driving his car. And the child's mother is the only witness. Then, after the accident, the cop's colleagues arrive and decide to "arrange" the actual events, so that the Internal Affairs do not interfere with the local police force. See what I mean?And the police officers will stop at ANYTHING to get rid of the poor child's mother and father. So that the two of them do not jeopardize what the rotten cops have decided to cover up. Powerful performances, and also an outstanding character study.Enjoy the ending, where the child's mother runs away with her son's killer, who wants to save her from his fellow police officers.The Americans will NEVER make such a film, even the independent industry. NEVER.