Le Géographe a vendu le globe pour boire

At first glance, this film looks a bit like the Russian version of Suck Me Shakespeer. But the opposite is true. The geographer Viktor Sluzhkin drinks like a fish and lives in a high-rise in one of the many ordinary housing projects in Russia. The school building – even though the pupils are horrible brats – looks like the most beautiful building far and wide. Other than that, everything is really bleak and it isn’t too much fun, really – even though it actually should be. Nevertheless, Konstantin Chabenskij puts on a great acting performance, as is usual for him, and he confirms my belief that he is one of the best contemporary Russian actors. The ruin and depression of the housing projects full of prefabricated high-rise buildings is then rescued a little bit in the second half of the movie with a trip to nature, which even though it is still unfunny is at least quite interesting as far as the sceneries go. (26/02/2019)