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Zamok
The Castle
Russia/Germany/France 1994
produced by Gennadi Petelin for Lenfilm, Orient Express, Roskomkino, Bioskop Film, Centre National de la Cinématographie
directed by Aleksey Balabanov
starring Nikolai Stotsky, Svetlana Pismichenko, Anvar Libabov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Igor Shibanov, Andrei Smirnov, Vladislav Demchenko, Bolot Bejshenaliyev, Svetlana Svirko, Olga Antonova, Viktor Mikhaylov, Yuri Eller, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Konstantin Demidov, Konstantin Bogutsky, Yuliya Sobolevskaya, Yelena Abrosimova, Irina Sokolova, Svetlana Serval, Stanislav Mostovoy, Aleksei German, Viktor Smirnov, Andrei Noskov, Vladimir Krishtapenko, Vladimir Trukhanov, M. Medvedev, Ye. Rappoport, Mikhail Grigoryev, A. Vasilenko
screenplay by Aleksey Balabanov, Sergei Selyanov, based on the novel The Castle by Franz Kafka, music by Sergei Kuryokhin
Franz Kafka's The Castle
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A nameless land surveyor (Nikolai Stotsky) comes to a rural village
overseen by the castle to start a new job - though he has no idea
what exactly the job might be. He eventually learns that he might have
been ordered to the village by mistake, but is still give two assistants
(Anvar Libabov, Viktor Sukhorukov) - who are very dim individuals though
and sabotage all of his actions more than they help - and a job as the
school's janitor. Still, the land surveyor desperately wants to know
what's going on, and thus he desperately tries to get to talk to an
official, but when he finally makes it to town hall, he only gets caught
up in bureaucracy and leaves with less than he came. The only thing the
land surveyor has learned there is that the answers to his problems might be
found in the castle - which though is off-limits for the townfolks and
also for him ... Finally, an official, Brunswick (Igor Shibanov), agrees
to take him to the mysterious castle anyhow, but when the land surveyor
falls asleep on the way, he wakes up at a place that might or might not be
the castle, and once in there he only finds himself talking to walls (literally
and figuratively speaking). The last scene shows him depressed and sitting over
a beer in the village inn he has come to hate - but the ending suggests
that everything that has happened might have just happened in his
imagination ... A very light-hearted adaptation of one of world
literature's most important unfinished novels, Franz Kafka's The Castle
- and to a point, the light-hearted approach works, too, as it puts more
emphasis on the ironic and even surreal elements of Kafka's book than its
darker aspects, which shine through anyhow in the basic plot. Plus, a very
playful direction and surreal spots every now and again make this a rather
enjoyable movie. On the downside though, Nikolai Stotsky in the lead gives
a very uncharismatic, even bland performance, so much so that he can't
convince the audience to care for him, and despite its light-footedness
and surreal elements, director Aleksei Balabanov fails to bring anything
really new, original to the story, and he tacks on an ending that is certainly
not in the spirit of Kafka (remember, The Castle is an unfinished
novel) - and thus, this adaptation of a milestone novel is nothing but an
enjoyable, even entertaining little romp. Not a bad film, certainly not,
but not a masterpiece either.
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