KHRUSTALYOV, MY CAR!
ХРУСТАЛЕВ, МАШИНУ



Russia-France, 1998, 138 min, black & white

March 1st, 1953. General Glinski, an army doctor, brain specialist, head of a large family and a great hedonist, is arrested. Stalin had launched an extensive anti-Semitic political campaign, and Glinski is accused of being part of the so-called doctor conspiracy.

"Of course Khrustalyov is about present-day Russia. Maybe things are simpler now - now they just shoot you. We didn't really want to depict 1953, we wanted to show what Russians are like."

"I'd be lying if I said that I could make complete sense of it all, but sometimes you just have to sit back and let the non-sequitirs wash over you. Photographed in fantastic high contrast, deep black and soft, glowing white, Khrustalyov's deadpan surreality delights just as its fever-dream paranoia and chaotic energy make for a startling and impressionistic portrait of Stalinist Russia circa the early 1950's."