How I Ended This Summer (2010)

If you've seen Andrei Zvyagintsev's The Return, I guess you haven't forgot it. I haven't at least. It was something about the atmosphere in that movie, the tension, the way the story progressed, that riveting film experience hasn't left me in peace. Great movie. From almost the first image (despite the HORRIBLE music) The Return was what I thought of when I started watching Aleksey Popogrebsky's How I Ended This Summer (he also made Roads to Koktebel, I recommend it!). However, I don't think the latter film holds up to the earlier film's subtlety, but there are still things I admire about it, above all, the remarkably grim cinematography (every single image bears an air of foreboding) and some of the use of sound (even though the machismo metal music one of the character listens to is extremely horrible, it kind of fits in). The one thing bothering me is the vacuity in how the story is developed. The film almost transforms into a weird action movie; you know, the sort of story where the only concern you will have is who kills whom. But that is just part of the film, and it starts out great.

Sergei, and middle-aged man with a severe sense of duty works with Pavel, a younger man, on a remote meteorological station up in the Arctic area. The younger man is often reprimanded for his unprofessional behavior and we see that the relation between the two men (who have only each other) is extremely strained. Things start to get out of hand one day when Sergei is away on a fishing trip and Pavel gets a message about something that happened to Sergei's family.  - - - What works best is the depiction of the difference in attitude towards the work they are commissioned to do. Sergei is the old-timer who takes an honor in doing everything meticulously. He is aware of their hash living surrounding, including the risks of their job. The younger colleague doesn't take his job as seriously. He's bored and his attention is easily diverted. For him, it's a temporary thing, an adventure. They depend on another, but they don't trust each other. - - - - It's the quieter scenes that haunted me. They munch on walrus meat, the sun hovers on the horizon, the wind blows hard, there are chores to do. Pavel works on an abandoned nuclear electric generator. Or: the ghostly sound of static noise from the short-wave radio, a noise that changes all the time, and seems to carry a world of secrets. Or: as Sergei receives a message from his wife, read by an official on the short-wave radio, he turns to Pavel to ask what a 'smiley' is. - - - How I Ended This Summer has many flaws, but it is also a film working with what its got: some hellish moments of tension.