The era of the 90s in the film “Rhinoceros” Oleg Sentsova: honest reviews from people of two different generations

The highly anticipated crime drama hit theaters this week “Rhinoceros” Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov. The film was supposed to be released several years ago, but due to the illegal arrest of Sentsov in Russia, it was suspended.

When Sentsov was released, the filming process “rhino” resumed. Producers from Poland and Germany helped in the production. What’s more, streaming giant Netflix has acquired the rights to screen the film!

We watched the film and are ready to tell you briefly about the plot. And we are also giving you a review by film critic and journalist Alexei Rosovetsky and editor Anastasia Rogozhinskaya (these will be two different views on one project).

“Rhinoceros” is not an analogy “Brigades”!

The criminal story tells about the dashing 90s in Ukraine: bandits, violence, murder, late repentance. Many may say that this is like an analogy for a Russian TV series. But I assure you, no!

When in “brigade” show the 90s more from a romantic side, then “Rhinoceros” recreates those times as they were: obscene, pathetic and cruel. In the film, we can clearly see the formation of a simple guy Vova (Sergey Filimonov) – a bloody bandit who beats opponents to death without feeling guilty.

The role of the Rhino was played by activist Sergei Filimonov. / Photo: screenshot

Heroes will dance in discos to the hit It’s my life, they will squeeze money from “simpletons”. Subsequently, the characters turn into stone-faced leather-jacketed bandits. They will hang out in cottages with girls, shoot competitors and keep everyone at bay.

Also in “Rhinoceros” there are many attributes without which the plot would be incomplete. For example, cardboard boxes for trying on things in the markets, trendy jeans, T-shirts with the image of Sylvester Stallone as Rimbaud. And black turtlenecks, gold chains, flip-top cell phones and BMWs. “five”. Probably many people remember this.

The Rhino had his own gang. / Photo: screenshot

The plot of the drama revolves around the main character Vova, who later received the nickname “Rhinoceros”. At the beginning of the film, we are told the period of his life in an ordinary Ukrainian family: little Vova plays in the yard, his sister gets married, his father returns from prison, his brother is taken to Afghanistan, his mother is the family’s guardian.

Already closer to the collapse of the USSR, the family is also disintegrating: the brother dies, the sister runs away from her husband, the father drinks, beats the mother and again goes to jail, and Vova turns into a bandit.

Rhino is an antihero! He is a bad person, resorting to cruelty without resisting evil. For his deeds, they take away the most valuable thing from him – his wife and daughter.

/ Photo: screenshot

Spoiler! I was very touched by the scene when the Rhino with his huge male palm covers the dead palm of his daughter, who peeked out from under the sheet. It is this moment that becomes a turning point for Vova and his life begins to go down the drain.

Sentsov’s film is set in a flashback that Rhino shares with a stranger in a car. It is here that he begins to analyze his life. And this is what indicates that bandit, although an anti-hero, but still strives for repentance. In the final, the Rhino surrenders…

Film Critic’s and Viewer’s Verdicts

We present to your attention two opinions of people from different eras – a person who lived at that time and remembers it well and a person who was born after this period.

Alexey Rosovetsky – film critic

This is only the second film directed by Oleg Sentsov, who has long been seen primarily as a political figure, after Sevastopol native Sentsov was sentenced in Russia to a 20-year prison term on charges of organizing a terrorist act.

The apparent political cause of the Ukrainian director caused indignation in the world film community (he was supported by such figures as Pedro Almodovar, Aki Kaurismaki and Bela Tarr). In Russia itself, such polar figures as Alexander Sokurov and Nikita Mikhalkov demanded that the director be released.

Oleg Sentsov / Photo: Reuters

Sentsov could not help but understand that after returning from the Yakut camp, his next directorial work would be at the peak of attention. So it is worth considering that the bewilderment from the film “Rhinoceros” can also be explained by high expectations. The miracle didn’t happen. Sentsov’s new film “sick” all childhood illnesses of young Ukrainian cinema, which is currently experiencing a period of debuts and is still in search of its own original film language. “Rhinoceros” was supposed to be released ten years ago, before the conviction of Sentsov, but the film, in a certain sense, remained at that time. This is the story of a village bully who goes through the typical path of a bandit in the nineties: he makes his “brigade”waging criminal wars with others “brigades”, “rises” and in one day loses everything.

“Rhinoceros” – This is a film about the real 90s. / Photo: screenshot

There are several bright, memorable scenes in the film – for example, a very effective prologue that tells the story of the growing up of the hero, as if shot in one shot. Or a scene at a shooting range to a children’s song about friends (“that snow to me, that heat to me, that torrential rain to me”), in which bandits with machine guns look like frolicking overage children playing war games, which in the future will turn into a uniform civil war. But, unfortunately, there are more disadvantages.

First of all, the problem is in the main character performed by a non-professional actor, fighter “Azov” and political activist Sergei Filimonov. It would seem that, “Rhinoceros” formally fits into the traditions of the crime genre, as we must be convinced “easter eggs” ranging from “The Sopranos” to the films of Alexei Balabanov. But the main character is not able to arouse in the viewer either sympathy, much less sympathy. – he is a stupid aggressive scumbag, devoid of the slightest charm of Paul Muni or Al Pacino, who played a similar “wild” type in both “Scarface”.

The second mistake of the filmmakers seems to be that “Rhinoceros”already too conditional for a crime film (we know almost nothing about the main character’s criminal business, we don’t understand the intrigue in his confrontation with other gangsters, one of whom is played by the cult Kiev writer Vladimir “Adolfich” Nesterenko) in the finale taxis onto the crooked path of the parable. But in fact “Rhinoceros” says nothing about people or time, although I personally hoped for a reflection on the notorious nineties.

Rhino repented for his cruelty. / Photo: screenshot

As a result, the simple moral of this fable is that being a bandit is bad, and killing people is even worse. From the director, who raised such an important, big topic and himself got the experience of confrontation with the repressive state machine, you involuntarily expect more.

Anastasia Rogozhinskaya – editor

I did not find that bloody period, but I know a lot about it. My childhood passed in years “care” that bandit time. I know what cardboard boxes in the market are like, fashionable jeans, rural discos, hooligans who try to look like bandits, and the like.

“Rhinoceros” is an uncensored movie about gangsterism, previously not yet covered in Ukrainian cinema. The film is devoid of romance. There are shocking scenes of violence, murder, betrayal and hopelessness. That is why the film is worth watching to analyze this past.

It seems to me that Ukraine with this film forever parted with the evil 1990s. “Rhinoceros” as if it warns us against the mistakes of that time and makes us awaken our conscience!

Here we share with you our thoughts on the film. “Rhinoceros”. We hope you are impressed. But whether it is worth watching or not – everyone decides for himself!

Previously, we wrote a review of an American film “Don’t look up”.