This film is based on
the first book of a trilogy written by Tom Rob Smith. The setting is the Stalin era of the Soviet Union in 1953. Leo Demidov is married to Raisa, he is
pro-Stalin and a member of the secret police. There have been a series of murders of young boys and
supposedly this sort of crime doesn’t exist in this country? The state does not acknowledge murder
exits and will not believe that this could involve a serial killer. Leo refuses to denounce his wife as a traitor when she is
accused of being an informant. This causes the exile of Leo and Raisa to the
industrial town of Volsk. Despite
their lowering of their circumstances, Leo decides to continue to look into the cases with
Raisa’s help. They join forces
with Leo’s new superior officer General Mikhail Nesterov.
This is a very dark movie
both in scenery and subject. It
seems difficult to follow with not much explanation given. The Russian accents are questionable resulting in some garbled
dialogue. This all results in a
movie where you are trying to understand the scenes and the story with elements
missing. There is a lot of
violence with men beating each other and men also beating Raisa. 2 ½* (This movie is so-so)
137
min, Drama directed by Daniel Espoinosa with Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi
Rapace, Mark Lewsi Jones, Joel Kinnaman, Fares Fares, Agnieszka Grochowska,
Petr Vanek, Jana Strykova, Jason Clarke, Ursina Lardi.
Note: Imdb 6.4 out of 10, 26% critic 43%
audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 1 ½*.
Special
Note: This movie was film in
Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic.
The film was banned before its release by Russia and it was not screened
for critics in many major cities. The
title refers to Leo because he was an orphan numbered at 44.
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