BAMcinématek presents Of Freaks and Men: The Films of Aleksei Balabanov, the first US retrospective of the late Russian filmmaker, Dec 3—10 Part of TransCultural Express: American and Russian Arts Today, a partnership with the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund to promote cultural exchange between American and Russian artists and audiences The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor for BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek. Brooklyn, NY/Nov 8, 2013—From Tuesday, December 3 through Tuesday, December 10, BAMcinématek presents Of Freaks and Men: The Films of Aleksei Balabanov, the first complete US retrospective of the acclaimed Russian filmmaker. Arguably the most radical, defiantly uncompromising Russian director to emerge since the collapse of communism, Aleksei Balabanov, who died suddenly this year at age 54, captured the Wild West atmosphere of the post-Soviet era in movies that oozed with caustic irony, macabre humor, and outré violence. Moving between offbeat experimental works and more mainstream, but equally personal, genre films, Balabanov—already a cult sensation in Russia—is ripe for discovery. Of Freaks and Men is part of TransCultural Express: American and Russian Arts Today, a collaborative venture to promote cultural exchange and the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund’s inaugural artistic alliance with a US performing arts institution. For more information on TransCultural Express, download the program press release. Opening the series on December 3 Balabanov’s first two features: his narrative debut Happy Days (1991—Dec 3), a reimagining of the Samuel Beckett play, and The Castle (1994—Dec 3), an adaptation of Kafka’s unfinished novel. An official selection of Un Certain Regard at Cannes, Happy Days follows a man through a string of surreal encounters after his release from the hospital, all in striking black and white cinematography by frequent Balabanov collaborator Sergey Astakhov. Balabanov’s sophomore feature, The Castle further revealed his interest in absurdism with a bizarre, inventive interpretation of Kafka’s parable of existentialism and bureaucracy. Screening Wednesday, December 4 is Of Freaks and Men (1998—Dec 4 + 5), Balabanov’s dark comedy about the invasion of pornography in early-1900s St. Petersburg. Hailed as “a witty, inventive exercise of historical imagination and cinematic style” (Stephen Holden, The New York Times), the film garnered two Nika Awards (Russia’s Oscar) for Best Film and Best Director. Happy Days, The Castle, and Of Freaks and Men have never been released on video in the US and will be presented in rare 35mm screenings for this series. In 1997, Balabanov’s Brother (Dec 7) became his first breakout hit and an instant commercial success in Russia. Drawing comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and the James Bond franchise, the film exposes the crime rings, poverty, and rebellious youth of the post-Soviet era with grimy detail and Balabanov’s signature caustic satire. Brother became Russia’s highest grossing film that year, managing to be “both commercial and a comment on commercialism…not only a highly entertaining genre film but a political statement as well—imagining, even as it warns against, the strong man’s return” (J. Hoberman). Brother spawned Brother 2 (2000—Dec 7), a defiantly nationalistic sequel set in Chicago, and cemented Balabanov’s powerful voice in the Russian New Wave. The self-proclaimed “anti-establishment rock’n’roller of Russian film” became known for his unflinching perspective of corruption in his post-Soviet homeland, through both dark comedies and grisly crime dramas. Highlights of Balabanov’s work in the 2000s include Dead Man’s Bluff (2005—Dec 6), a blood- soaked action comedy with Tarantino-esque wit; Cargo 200 (2007—Dec 6), a nightmarish thriller based on a true story; Morphia (2008—Dec 5), a “deliciously funny and graphically gory take on Mikhail Bulgakov’s Notes of a Young Doctor” (David Jenkins, Time Out NY); and The Stoker (2010—Dec 8), a nihilistic comedy set to a bossa nova soundtrack. Balabanov’s final film, Me Too (2012—Dec 8), made its US premiere in BAMcinématek’s Russian Cinema Now series in June. A comedic, Kaurismäki-esque take on Tarkovsky’s tour-de-force sci-fi epic Stalker (1979), the film is a “disarmingly deadpan and deceptively ambitious blend of black comedy, crime, and metaphysics” (Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter)—synthesizing in one film the many things that Balabanov did best. Press screenings to be announced. For press information, please contact Lisa Thomas at 718.724.8023 / [email protected] Hannah Thomas at 718.724.8002 / [email protected] Film Schedule Tue, Dec 3 4:30, 9:30pm: Happy Days 7pm: The Castle Wed, Dec 4 4:30pm: Of Freaks and Men Thu, Dec 5 4:30, 9:30pm: Morphia 7pm: Of Freaks and Men Fri, Dec 6 2, 7pm: Dead Man’s Bluff 4:30, 9:30pm: Cargo 200 Sat, Dec 7 2, 7pm: Brother 4:30, 9:30pm: Brother 2 Sun, Dec 8 2pm: Trofim + The River 4, 8:30pm: Me Too 6pm: The Stoker Mon, Dec 9 4:30pm: Trofim + The River Tue, Dec 10 4:30, 9:30pm: It Doesn’t Hurt Me 7pm: War Film Descriptions Brother (1997) 99min With Sergey Bodrov Jr. After being released from the army, music-obsessed Danila (Bodrov Jr.) heads to St. Petersburg in search of his older brother, who swiftly inducts him into a violent criminal underworld. Taking to his new job as a hit man like a duck to water, Danila is part thug, part avenging angel—a criminal with a half- formed conscience who lives by his own primitive code of ethics. Balabanov’s “terrifically stylish” (The New York Times) breakout commercial hit was an enormous success in Russia, capturing the sick soul of post-Soviet youth in grimy detail. 35mm. Sat, Dec 7 at 2, 7pm Brother 2 (2000) 122min With Sergey Bodrov Jr. Balabanov cranked the action up to 11 for this adrenaline-fueled, bathed-in-blood sequel to his mega hit Brother. This time around, baby-faced, armed-to-the-teeth hit man Danila (Bodrov Jr.) heads to Chicago to avenge the death of an old army buddy knocked off by mobsters. Defiantly nationalistic and caustically anti-Western, Brother 2 is the radical Russian New Wave answer to the Hollywood blockbuster. 35mm. Sat, Dec 7 at 4:30, 9:30pm Cargo 200 (2007) 89min With Agniya Kuznetsova, Alexey Poluyan. Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre transposed to 1980s USSR, Balabanov’s Rotterdam Film Festival prize-winning ultra-nightmare Cargo 200—based, chillingly, on a real incident—is a grim, sickly funny horror-show commentary on the Soviet era. In the gloomy industrial wasteland of Leninsk, a motley group of strangers stumble upon a remote bootlegger’s cabin. What ensues is an utterly horrifying display of depravity perpetrated by a sadistic police captain (Poluyan). Strong, and completely riveting stuff. 35mm. Fri, Dec 6 at 4:30, 9:30pm The Castle (1994) 120min With Nikolay Stotskiy, Svetlana Pismichenko, and Viktor Sukhorukov. Balabanov offers this characteristically eccentric take on Kafka’s unfinished novel, which tells the absurdist allegory of a land surveyor (Stotskiy) who attempts to infiltrate the seemingly impregnable, highly bureaucratic castle that exerts a palpable influence on his everyday existence. The director’s second feature is a swirl of surrealistic imagery with a distinctly Bruegel-influenced aesthetic, featuring a score by the pioneering experimental cult musician Sergey Kuryokhin. 35mm. Tue, Dec 3 at 7pm Dead Man’s Bluff (2005) 111min With Alexei Panin, Dmitry Dyuzhev. Balabanov reportedly spilled 50 liters of fake blood for this action comedy joyride about two hoodlum brothers (Panin and Dyuzhev) scrambling to recover a suitcase full of heroine. Set in the gritty mean streets of the lawless 1990s, Dead Man’s Bluff is a giddy Tarantino-esque mix of splatter and snappy dialogue, featuring ingenious cameos by more than 20 Russian movie stars—all incognito! 35mm. Fri, Dec 6 at 2, 7pm Happy Days (1991) 86min With Viktor Sukhorukov. Shot in grainy, expressive black and white, Balabanov’s striking narrative debut is a freewheeling, disorienting head-trip adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist stage work. Just released from the hospital where he received a mysterious brain operation, an unidentified man (Sukhorukov) roams the streets of St. Petersburg in search of a place to stay, encountering a panoply of hostile weirdos and bizarre situations along the way. 35mm. Tue, Dec 3 at 4:30, 9:30pm It Doesn’t Hurt Me (2006) 101min With Renata Litvinova, Aleksandr Yatsenko. After establishing a reputation for gonzo gangster thrillers, Balabanov took a surprising detour into romantic drama with this poignant, offbeat character study about a young building developer (Yatsenko) and an eccentric woman who is dying of leukemia (Litvinova)—and trying to conceal it. Set amid the tumult of 1990s St. Petersburg, It Doesn’t Hurt Me reveals Balabanov’s gentler, but no less idiosyncratic, side. 35mm. Tue, Dec 10 at 4:30, 9:30pm Me Too (2012) 83min With Yurii Matveev, Alexander Mosin, Oleg Garkusha, Alisa Shitikova Tarkovsky meets Kaurismäki in this dark, deadpan riff on the revered filmmaker’s 1979 sci-fi film Stalker. A ragtag gaggle of thugs, punk rockers, and societal outcasts embark on a pilgrimage to a mystical “Bell Tower of Happiness” in search of enlightenment. “As intoxicatingly uncompromised and bracingly direct as a treble of straight Stolichnaya..." (The Hollywood Reporter). DCP. Sun, Dec 8 at 4, 8:30pm Morphia (2008) 110min With Leonid Bichevin, Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė. In 1917, young medic Mikhail (Bichevin) arrives at a remote rural village to begin his practice—but quickly succumbs to a crippling morphine addiction, as the Bolshevik Revolution rages on in the background. Based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s short story collection A Country Doctor's Notebook, Morphia is Balabanov’s hellish, savagely funny vision of societal and personal breakdown rendered in remarkable period detail.