The Fool (2014)

A short moment from real life. a very realistic approach. plain and self-expression. This film that should be definitely to be watched.

On the surface, the movie is about a common corrupted society, where we usually correlate with Russia or some developing countries. A simple young heart, believes in justice and mere moral defines the true existence of human being, also distinguishes us from animals, tries to oppose the corrupted 'animal' society and sadly breaking apart like his father. I'm not sure whether he could survive physically from his attempt to resurrect the human moral, but even if he survives, I'm sure he'll be dead in his soul which could lead him to drink to death. Underneath the story, you'll encounter the very same question that Nietzsche and Dostoevsky had struggled with, do we afford to be saved? Do we need to change our course to extinction? Would we be changed if we're saved? Isn't it who we are as it is?One of the greatest Russian movies ever.

Corruption is a cancer and Russia is terminally ill. As our hero uncovers the truth - that a 38 year old building is on the verge of collapse, which means death to its 820 souls, he rushes to the Mayor and the public service directors to plead for an immediate government backed evacuation before it is too late.During his struggle with corrupt government officials, to the very end of the movie we gain a grizzly yet truthful look at Russian society from the lower class to the very top of the city government; each class rotten to the core. Only redeemable feature of a society such as this is our hero. His struggle is one I could not look away from and kept me on the edge of my seat until the credits rolled because it is only then that you truly know the story is over in a plot of constant turns. The dark atmosphere and unforgiving dialogue within the movie is (unfortunately) a staple of modern Russian cinema. No scratch that - it is Russian cinema! All too common place are dramatically dark movies which cast only doom upon the world. Mostly due to the writers mirroring the harsh life experiences that they deal with everyday!I watched this movie because I used to live in the Soviet Union. Thankfully, I now live abroad. But, at certain times I get a pang of homesickness, when I do, I watch some modern Russian movies. And each time it does wonders to cure my homesickness and make me grateful for no longer living in a state that is as corrupted and sordid as Russia. A societal mentality that glorifies criminality and the pursuit of money in a relentless dog eat dog world.God have mercy on this pensioner that is old mother Russia, abused and cheated out of her future by her mislead children.

Yuri Bykov's "Durak" ("The Fool" in English) looks as the current state of affairs in Russia. This story of a plumber facing an intractable bureaucracy when he tries to draw people's attention to a precarious apartment building is merely one look into an oligarchic society that's seen little infrastructural and political advancement since the Soviet collapse. Indeed, the city government seems as hopeless as the private citizens. The truth is, none of this should come as a surprise. Boris Yeltsin turned Russia into a kleptocracy. Vladimir Putin stabilized the economy but restored the Soviet-era authoritarianism. Corruption has dominated the country ever since the USSR collapsed (and was certainly widespread in Soviet times)."The Fool" is mostly an indictment of Putin's Russia, but can be seen as an indictment of any society in which corruption is so ingrained that the citizens practically accept it. Worth seeing.