''Cargo 200'' () is a

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Russian

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...

film directed by

Aleksei Balabanov Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov (; 25 February 1959 – 18 May 2013) was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and Film producer, producer, a member of European Film Academy. He started from creating mostly arthouse pictures and music videos ...

depicting the end of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

era. The action is set during the culmination of the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic o ...

in 1984. The movie's title Cargo 200 refers to the

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

coffins in which dead Soviet soldiers were shipped home. Andrew Osborn
From Russia, Without Love: New Movie Slams Soviet Union
''Wall Street Journal'', June 21, 2007 The movie was said to be based on a true story. It received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

Artyom Kazakov (Leonid Gromov), a professor of Scientific Atheism at the Leningrad State University, is visiting his brother, the district military commissioner, Colonel Mikhail, in a small town of Nizhny Volok in the fictitious Leninsk Oblast. There he is introduced to his niece Liza's boyfriend Valery Buadze ( Leonid Bichevin). Valery and Liza are going to have a party at the dacha of Liza's classmate, Angelika Naboyeva, who is the daughter of the district party secretary. Artyom starts on his way to Leninsk to visit his mother. On the outskirts of village of Kalyayevo, Artyom's car breaks down, forcing him to go to an isolated farmhouse to try to get help. There he meets the farmhouse owner Alexey ( Aleksei Serebryakov), Alexey's wife Antonina (Natalya Akimova), a Vietnamese worker who goes by the name "Sunka" (Mikhail Skryabin), and a stranger who is not introduced at the time. Artyom and Alexey consume large quantities of moonshine alcohol while arguing about faith in God and retribution for sins, the professor defending the Soviet atheist worldview. Vietnamese worker Sunka, who seems to be practically a personal slave of Alexey, fixes Artyom's car and the professor drives on. However, realizing how drunk he is, Artyom decides to go back to Nizhny Volok, to spend the night at Mikhail's flat. The movie switches to Valery. He went to a concert by himself. At the concert Valery hangs out with Angelika (Agniya Kuznetsova), another female student friend of his who is a daughter of a high-ranking Communist Party official. They get drunk together, and after the party is over Valery drives with her to a farm of moonshiners in search of more alcohol. The moonshiner turns out to be the same Alexey whom Artyom had encounter earlier. Valery tells Angelika to stay in the car while he gets the alcohol. However, instead of returning directly to the car, he gets drunk senseless with the moonshiner, Alexey. Angelika, waiting in the car, notices that she is being watched by a strange man. She gets scared, and tries to get help from the moonshiner's wife Antonina. Antonina hands the girl a shotgun and hides her in a barn. The stranger enters the barn, declares that he is a police officer Captain Zhurov ( Aleksei Poluyan), and takes away the gun. When Sunka tries to defend the girl, captain Zhurov murders him, then rapes the girl with a glass bottle (it appears that he himself is impotent). In the morning he handcuffs her, puts her on a police motorcycle, and takes her to his apartment where he lives with his deranged alcoholic mother. Zhurov handcuffs Angelika to the bed frame in his bedroom, and start to bring jail inmates in to rape her as he himself watches. When he decides that one of the criminals fails to "please" the girl he kills him. The girl threatens that her fiancé, who is an army paratrooper, will save her. Captain Zhurov finds out, however, that her fiance had just been killed in Afghanistan. He arranges to have the zinc-lined coffin shipped to his apartment where he opens it and throws the corpse on the bed next to the screaming girl. Alexey the moonshiner is arrested for the murder of his worker Sunka. Captain Zhurov visits Alexey in his cell and convinces him to take the blame for the crime in return for some unexplained earlier favors. Alexey gets a visit from his wife Antonina and tells her not to worry. Antonina meets Artyom, the professor whose testimony might exonerate her husband, but Artyom refuses to testify since that would jeopardize his academic career. Alexey is convicted, sentenced to the death penalty, and summarily executed. Antonina takes the shotgun and goes to Zhurov's apartment, where she encounters Angelika still chained to the bed next to the rotting corpses. She shoots and kills Zhurov, then walks out without attempting to help the screaming girl. Artyom enters a church and asks to be baptized. In the last scenes Valery, who managed to keep a low profile through the entire affair, is shown discussing business propositions with Artyom's son, Slava. The two are excited about the amount of money that can be made in the disintegrating country.

Filming

Filming was carried out in Cherepovets, Novaya Ladoga, Staraya Ladoga,

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

and

Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=Ru-Псков.oga, p=psˈkof; see also Names of Pskov in different languages, names in other languages) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov O ...

Soundtrack

* « Ariel» — In the land of magnolias () * « Zemlyane» — Grass by the Home () * « DK » — New turn () * « Kola Beldy» — I'll take you to the tundra () * « Afric Simone» — Hafanana * «

Pesniary Pesniary (also spelled Pesnyary, , ) was a popular Soviet Union, Soviet Belarusian folk music, folk rock VIA music, VIA. It was founded in 1969 by guitarist Vladimir Mulyavin. Before 1970, the band was known under the name Liavony (Лявоны). ...

» — Vologda () * « Kino» — There is time, but no money () * « Yuri Loza» — Raft ()

Reception

Critical response

''Cargo 200'' has an approval rating of 81% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 21 reviews, and an average rating of 6.75/10. Wally Hammond from Time Out gave the film a mostly positive review, stating, "Whether this superbly-acted, finely-directed, vision of hell is intended as a despairing state-of-the-nation address or a shocking spiritual wake-up call is unclear; what is certain, it certainly provides this year's grizzliest cinematic ghost-ride". Vadim Rizov from Village Voice gave the film a positive review, praising the film's direction, performances, and its ability to hold its tension throughout its running time, calling it, "an unflinching portrait of the grim vileness of Soviet Russia in 1984". According to David Auerbach, the film is not a true story as claimed, but is based on

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

's novel ''Sanctuary'', which was set in

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

in 1929.

Awards and nominations

Won: * 2007 - Gijón International Film Festival for Best Director ( Aleksey Balabanov) * 2008 -

Rotterdam International Film Festival International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

: KNF Award'(Aleksey Balabanov) Nominated: * 2007 - Gijón International Film Festival: Grand Prix Asturias (Aleksey Balabanov]) * 2007 - Kinotavr, Sochi Open Russian Film Festival: Grand Prize of the Festival (Aleksey Balabanov) * 2007 - Russian Guild of Film Critics Awards: Best Film