The Man Who Surprised Everyone, written and directed by Aleksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova - 8.7 out of 10

The Man Who Surprised Everyone, written and directed by Aleksey Chupov and Natasha Merkulova

8.7 out of 10

On some levels, this is a very original, interesting, somewhat provocative, perhaps psychological motion picture, though on another perspective, it is not as resplendent as other Russian movies, such as Moscow Does not Believe in Tears - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/moscow-does-not-believe-in-tears.html - An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/02/an-unfinished-piece-for-mechanical.html - or A Gentle Creature http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-gentle-creature-creature-written-and.html  

Never mind Leviathan, which should have been the first film, before Parasite, to win the Absolute Best Picture at the Academy Awards

Evgenly Tsyganov is fabulous in the leading role of the Man Who Surprised Everyone or Yegor, a state forest guard in Siberia, where he leads a quite normal life…well, it would have been in fact a quite peculiar, outré situation, given the taiga, remoteness, the muddy roads, the medieval inhabitants, all the shortcomings of Putin’s Russia exacerbated by the zone, but in the world where the Wuhan or new Coronavirus is speeding up to pandemic status , in spite of what the cretin Fat Donnie keeps saying, to live in an isolated part of the word looks fantastic, for one has the benefit that few people travel never, never mind the ones that carry the new cataclysmic disease…

Alas, the hero is still struck by an ailment and a deadly one at that, for he is diagnosed with cancer, at such a severe stage that he has only two months to live and the local doctor suggest that he considers moving to an hospice, where there would be assistance, free meals, they do not have to pay for it and perhaps it would be so much better for the family, which the Man who surprised everyone tries to protect, by keeping the diagnosis secret, though he would have to share it with the wife, equally impressive Natalya Kudryashova as Natalia, who would be aghast at another terrible incident, when the forest guard meets with poachers in the forest and in the clash that ensues, he kills one, then he is nearly murdered by another that he would eventually manage to overpower, though after tremendous effort…

The dying man tries to arrange a financial windfall for his would be widow, who is expecting a second child when she learns that the man has only a very short time left next to her, a catastrophe that she wants to avoid in spite of all odds, pushing him to see another, better specialist than the local doctor, though the hero is dead against this, given that it would cost money and he thinks it is useless, a theory endorsed by the expert, who would not take the banknotes pushed repeatedly towards his pocket by the desperate Natalia, retorting that there is nothing he can do, the disease is much too advanced and thus it is too late for anyone to stop it…

This is not enough to deter, or anyway stop the courageous, determined woman, who has another hope, since she had heard that a blind man could see after he had been to one of shamanic witch or maybe a charlatan (?), after she had already proved how resilient, gritty she is, when she had gone in the village to collect money – they had had no means to see these people – and she even talked to the mayor, against the will of her sick spouse, who would not have her beg from anyone…the official would access some emergency fund, but would also come to the house to give the sum in front of the hero and make some gestures to politicize, maybe weaponize this desperate help…

The woman with alleged supernatural powers makes some concoction, moves it around the body of Yegor, chanting some mysterious mantras, telling the sick man to let go – at which this viewer thought maybe this would be the key, the famous placebo, combined with a whole different mindset would work ‘miracles’…which maybe they would, though in a whole different manner – but without much success to speak of, given that the state of the main character does not improve…

There is a turning point, perhaps the zenith of the story, which we could take as too simplistic, or some would look at the magic, while the undersigned might agree with the aforementioned combination of placebo, combined to a switch to a positive, hopeful approach – people who are happier, more positive live longer, have more successful private and professional lives and more to the point of this narrative, they get sick less often and when they do, they are ill for Shorter periods…

Whichever angle or perspective is correct, a story told by the resigned (she admits her procedure failed) witch makes a radical change, after she tells the story of the goose (I think it was) which finds somehow that she is about to die and then choses some ‘disguise’ and hides among the ducks at the pond, thus making Death unable to find and take her along…upon hearing this tale, the once ‘manly, strong, solid’ man of the forest seems to get into the Monty Python Lumberjack song mood…’I’m a lumberjack and I’m ok…then moving to ‘wear high heels and wear a dress…’

Indeed, the man starts wearing a dress, later on earrings, make up, rouge for lip stick, in his effort to cheat Death, which might be unable to recognize him as the new person he is…if that works, it would not be revealed here, but until Death is or is not confused as to his identity, first the wife, then the locals are first surprised, but very quickly appalled, infuriated by this change, which brings upon his son the scorn, then the blows of the other children at school, then the men and women come to the house of the couple – he lives in the barn now, exiled there by the outraged spouse, who even says ‘why don’t you die like a normal being’ … a line that is used by the villagers as well – trespass and come to the barn to make this ‘creature’ come out, for these are far from ‘woke’, they descend straight from the middle ages and they would beat someone who dares do such a horrendous thing as dress like a woman…the fury would become a physical attack and the man would have to suffer a lot, before, who knows, maybe he finds some silver lining, some resurrection or hope…