“Dead Man’s Bluff”(2005): an Immortal Classic of Russian Crime Cinema. Film Review.

“Dead Man’s Bluff” is merciless, but very funny and very in Balabanov’s style movie. I put off watching it for a long time, even though I had seen all of the director’s other works and was even writing my master’s thesis on it. I put it off because I was afraid, no matter how funny it sounds, that I wouldn’t like it. Speaking of funny: “Dead Man’s Bluff” is really a comedy, albeit a cruel one. It’s such, you know, native humor, there’s no other way to describe it.

Let’s omit the political component here, because everything is clear: Balabanov was able to capture the era without embellishments, although choosing only some of its symbols. The movie itself has a harmonious dramaturgy and is very easy to watch. As for fixing the epoch, I recently learned a new term anemoia, which means nostalgia for times that a person has not lived. So this is exactly the feeling I experienced, although I was born only in the mid-90s and I know little about this period, mostly only through the testimonies of the older generation and art. But what was going on then is firmly imprinted in Russian culture, that’s why it resonates like that. I’ve never been close to this style, but damn it, there are echoes of it in me too.