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Night Watch
(Nochnoy dozor)
DIR: Timur Bekmambetov • WRI: Timur
Bekmambetov, Laeta Kalogridis • PROD: Konstantin Ernst,
Anatoli Maksimov • DOP: Sergei Trofimov • ED: Dmitri
Kiselyov • DES: Mukhtar Mirzabeyev, Valeri Viktorov •
CAST: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin,
Maria Poroshina, Galina Tunina, Victor Verzhbitsky
Night Watch is the first part of a
Russian trilogy, with the second part due for release in 2006.
It's a fantasy-thriller based around people known as 'Others':
essentially supernatural beings – Sorcerers, Vampires, and the
like – who are either on the side of Light or Darkness. There
has been an uneasy truce between both sides since ancient times
(shown in a battle sequence at the start of the film), but which
is due to be broken.
The story is, as is usually the case in fantasies,
fairly archetypal, but it's not unoriginal. There are resemblances
to other movies (the films of Jeunet and Caro, Highlander,
The Lord of the Rings for the beginning), but the film
carves out its own niche pretty early on. The use of familiar
elements, in particular fantasy and horror conventions, makes
this world more familiar and accessible.
The film deals with the battle between good
and evil, but is ambiguous about the difference. What sets
the side of good apart isn't that they don't do bad things,
but that they regret doing bad things. The very fact
that they allow a truce with the bad guys is being open to
evil, allowing it to happen. Although, given this ambiguity,
it seems odd that at the beginning the army of light are wearing
suits of armour, while the army of darkness are dressed more
like Mongol hordes. It's probably necessary to distinguish
them, but you would think it would be more appropriate to
the story that they look essentially the same.
Night Watch is very violent and gory,
but not in a sadistic way; in fact it's rather more masochistic.
The hero, Anton, suffers all the way through it. The violence
is in no way glamorised. It's quite hard to stomach, and when
people scream they do it with almost unbearable anguish. And
no-one looks cool. When Anton first appears he looks like
a Geography teacher and, aside from starting to wear sunglasses,
he never upgrades the look that much.
Overall, Night Watch is compelling
and stylish, occasionally over-the-top, but very inventive,
even down to the subtitles. It wouldn't be for everyone, but
it already has definite fans, and is likely to garner a devoted,
perhaps even cult-like, following.
Tim Hanan
Rated
18 (Republic of Ireland) / 15 (Northern Ireland) (see
IFCO
website for details)
Night Watch is released on 7th October 2005.
Night
Watch – Official website
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