"Shurale" — a Hope That Came Apart

"Shurale" came apart badly, and there was some hope going in — the cast looked right and it's shot beautifully.

Alina Nasibullina is very good-looking, but she should have stayed in front of the camera; she isn't a director yet. A shame, given she came out of the Brusnikin school and has been in good films.

Roma Mikhailov and Gena Blinov both gave it everything. Maxim Matveev is in this company for reasons I can't work out — for the draw, presumably; he's a capable actor and I've never much liked him.

I have a lot of questions about the concept. It does look beautiful, and I'm sure every reference was in place, but I couldn't assemble a picture out of it, even reading it as some kind of mythology. It doesn't hold.

Worth a look even so.