Film Festival 09 - Morphia
Morphia
Morfiy, Russia 2008, 102m
Director: Alexei Balabanov
Festivals: Rotterdam 2009
Alexei Balabanov (Cargo 200, Brother) invests historical drama with
dark energy in his glowering adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's Notes
of a Young Doctor. It's 1917 and Mikhail Alekseyevich Polyakov has
been assigned to a tiny rural hospital far from the Revolution.
Barely out of medical school and seemingly out of his depth, he
soon takes refuge from the stresses of complicated childbirths and
emergency trachaeotomies in the arms of his head nurse - and the
oblivion of a morphine high. The film exhibits tremendous classical
virtues: Balabanov has a beautiful eye for place and period, right
down to the elegant art nouveau chapter headings. But although the
film delivers the expected shocks and pleasures - such as richly
detailed social interaction and a memorable night ride through a
snowstorm, pursued by wolves - Morphia's electrifying impact is as
a portrayal of a pivotal historical moment through a prism of
personal disintegration. - BG
In Russian with English subtitles
