OUR OWN A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
In OUR OWN (SVOI), set on the Russian front during World War II, Mitya and two of his fellow soldiers have gone AWOL from the Russian army after their unit is captured by the Germans. Dressed in civilian clothes they go to the nearby farm of Mitya's father in order to hide out.
In the story, which is always as confusing as it is intriguing, the three ex-soldiers spend most of the time fighting with the local Russian authorities, who rule the land like feudal lords or ghetto gangs. The lads are also quite horny, having spent so much time cooped up with a bunch of other soldiers, so the beefy local ladies, all of whom are well past two hundred pounds look awfully good to these guys.
Although Mitya trusts his father, no one trusts any one else in the story, so the risk of death is around every turn. Throats are slit if someone is deemed unreliable. And, just to make sure we know these guys will do anything, they are even willing to kill horses and dogs, which always upsets audiences even more than killing humans.
What makes the film most memorable is the cinematography, which uses the denuded color or sepia tone look from films like 28 DAYS LATER. The men were so vicious at times that they reminded me of the mad dog zombies from 28 DAYS LATER. The acting in OUR OWN is frighteningly good.
OUR OWN runs 1:50. The film is in Russian with English subtitles.
The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival (www.Cinequest.org), which runs March 2-13, 2005.
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