Capsule Review: Siberian Education (Educazione Siberiana)

by allan tong for FILMbutton

There’s a kind of mafiya in remote Siberia, where the gangsters consider themselves honest, because they live by a code that defies both the police and the ruling Communists, but protects women, children and the elderly. With guns and violence they collect money and religious icons. John Malkovich plays godfather as well mentor to 7-year-old Kolyma. The film spans the decades before and after the fall of the Soviet Union, and is told through Kolyma’s eyes as he grows up to be a Russian soldier fighting Chechnya. Italian director Gabriele Salvatores (Mediterraneo) tells a rites-of-passage story that bursts with action. From the start Salvatores establishes Kolyma’s revererence to Malkovich’s grandfather/godfather, but falls short in emotionally connecting them with the audience as in a Scorsese or John Woo film. Still, Siberian Education is a festival highlight.

ICFF Screening Time: July 2, 9:30 pm

Allan is a Toronto filmmaker, co-directing Leone Stars, a documentary about child victims of the Sierra Leonean civil war.

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