Starring: Mikhail Skryabin, Aleksandr Mosin, Yuriy Matveev
A veteran of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a
brain-damaged former army major (Skryabin) now spends his days living in the
furnaces of a dilapidated factory, stoking the flames and writing a book.
Periodically an old military comrade (Mosin) drops by with his associates in
the Russian mafia with bodies for the major to dispose of in the furnaces, but
soon this arrangement goes wrong.
Having taken three years to have gotten a release in the UK,
The Stoker is a minimalistic but often very confrontational film. With a small
cast and a similarly limited number of settings (even against the, at times,
isolated Russian backdrop) the film’s focus remains mainly on Mikhail Skyrabin
in a strong performance as the major; his kindly personality mixing with the
wickedness of his work and his obvious dementia. The film deals less well with
its female characters and its attitude towards them doesn’t come across as
progressive. Both of the film’s two main adult female characters are introduced
completely naked in a leering fashion and neither of them have particularly
complex characters. The film does have a nice visual aspect, showing a beauty
to the wintry landscape but the score is repetitive, using the same pieces of
music over and over throughout. With strong violence and nudity, this isn’t
everyone’s cup of tea but those who can stomach The Stoker might find a
rewarding, if flawed, film.
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