Twilight

The film is quite a pleasant deviation from the current mainstream and is certainly a successful debut by director Artem Antonov. However, the film shows creative inexperience, and if I compare it to a film in a similar vein, such as The Cuckoo, the latter clearly wins in terms of execution. The screenplay is somewhat unfinished, resulting in flat characters that the viewer learns very little about. On the other hand, the cinematography is excellent. The film features several great scenes, such as the fall into the frozen river or the carnival. Nevertheless, I can't shake the feeling that more could have been extracted from the given material. My overall impression ranges between three and four stars, ultimately leaning towards 70%. (12/01/2007)