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Collection ID
1016
Director:
Jamie Bradshaw, Aleksandr Dulerayn
Starring:
Ed Stoppard, Leelee Sobieski, Jeffrey Tambor, Max von Sydow, Mariya Ignatova
Genre:
Drama, Fantasy, Thriller
Studio:
Mirumir
Release date:
2012
Rated:
R
Language (Country):
English, Russian
(USA, Russia)
Summary:
The film starts with documentary-style flashbacks showing Misha's rise to a powerful marketing executive. Now in Moscow 2017, Misha is a powerful marketing executive working to spread Western brands, and like the businesses he works for nothing will stop him in his greed, until the imprisonment and death of an overweight girl undergoing extensive plastic surgery to become skinny. Following a vision in which Misha sacrifices a heifer to God, he begins to receive strange visions depicting the brands control over people. He returns to work and guided by these visions, Misha attempts to stop the growth of the brands in post-Communist Russia by encouraging the brand to attack each other in their advertising campaigns. There is some debate whether Misha believes that the worship of global brands is Idolatry and his visions depicting the brands are controlling people causing them to sin, or whether his belief is that monopoly is evil and his intention is to create a Western style free-market...
My Rating:
My Review: There are multiple movies with this title - So be sure you've got the right one. Produced in 2012, this movie is also known by a couple of other titles: Mad Cow and Moscow 2017), this is NOT the Western you might have been expecting. I love the movies that reveal hidden or inconvenient truths about the relationship between advertisers and media. The lies, the propaganda, the incestuous relationships. The media does its best to convince us that it knows what's best for us, that it somehow has our best interests at heart. Whether its through advertisement, a documentary, a 'news' program or a sit-com that demonstrates what 'normal' life should look like. This movie was co-written and co-directed by Jamie Bradshaw (directing his first feature length movie) and Aleksandr Dulerayn (multiple producer credits/second feature length direction). Starring Ed Stoppard, Leelee Sobieski, Jeffrey Tambor, Max von Sydow and others. Here's a movie (theatrical - not a documentary) that demonstrates how the media lies to us at the behest of their corporate owners - The advertisers! The movie takes place in a dystopian future Moscow - Not so far in the future as to produce Sci-Fi disbelief. The movie starts out in a staunchly communist 1980; where Misha (primary protagonist - played by Ed Stoppard) is struck by lightning. The doctors proclaim that he will live an interesting life. Then we fast forward to the dystopian future of 2017... A dystopian future where corporations infest the city like corrupt beacons of corporate greed (how ironic that the bastion of workers rights and social equality is converted into the home of concentrated evil in the shape of evil corporations. These competing 'brands' are like competing political ideologies governed by alien intelligence. In this movie one man is doing his best to reveal the truth behind the hidden agendas of these alien monstrosities. It’s an epic battle between secret ancient enemies for control of our world. It’s a political statement about media manipulation, materialism, corporate greed, religious idolatry (in the guise of corporate brands), and late stage capitalism. Great subversive work with amazing visuals, costumes and set. Brimming over with allegorical symbolism and terrific writing. I give it a 5 out of 5, and I'm adding to my list of 'Must Own' titles. Big money hollywood hates this movie. I love it for its dark and gritty tale of hidden truths and outright lies.
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