Особенности национальной охоты

The dawn was bleak, yet the forest of Fontainebleau sparkled, frozen in a silent, white embrace, when the King’s retinue arrived. It was not a gathering of sportsmen, but a royal pageant in motion. Ahead of the pack, the Comte d'Artois appeared, vibrant against the snow in a dark green coat trimmed with silver lace, his postilions in cocked hats and heavy boots guiding the coaches. 

Sounds nice, huh? That’s exactly what the hero of our movie thinks (or rather dreams) what the experience of a Russian hunt could be. Unfortunately his expectations are shattered in this film that gives us a rare and brutal insight to the depths of the Russian soul.

Sounds horrible, huh? Don’t worry, this movie is a crazy screwball comedy. Just consider every stereotype you know about Russian people and you will see some of it in this movie. 

Director Aleksandr Rogozhkin (1949  2021) was not a comedy director at all, rather directing quite serious movies about politics and war, but with this movie he made a cult hit, which is loved by many Russians and unfortunately remains more or less unknown to Western audiences. Made in the 90’s, it was the time after the fall of communism. A violent, chaotic period, but also a time which saw a significant boom of creative freedom. Therefore this movie is very much symbolic for its time. With so much confusion, chaos and corruption going on, many average Russians were feeling alone and isolated while their country was quickly transformed to a capitalist state. The social security ( one of the few advantages of the former Soviet state) for citizens was pretty much eroded and power and capital transferred to a select oligarchy of businessmen in a national money grab. Some distraction and acknowledgment of all this craziness was needed and Rogozhin delivers this with his Peculiarities of the National Hunt. 

Expect chaos, black humor, confusion and above all… vodka… A lot of it.